kasploosh.com

Installation On Mac

Brief instructions for installing CZWIGOUT on Mac OS X.

Basic Install

The most basic version of what you need to do is unzip the archive, and execute the file czwigout.pyw in such a way that it is interpreted with Python 3. This should launch the program, and you are off and running.

Dependencies

This application is built with Python 3, so you must have a Python 3 interpreter installed and working on your computer. Python 3 is easy to install on Linux, Windows, and Mac.

Your Python 3 environment needs a few more things:

  • Tkinter - A native GUI toolkit for Python. It is often included in the original Python package, but may need to be installed.
  • LibYAML (optional) - A C library for reading YAML files. This makes it much faster to read library files.
  • PyYAML - A Python module for reading and writing YAML. We use YAML for reading and writing to library files.

Troubleshooting—All Platforms

Here are the most common things that could go wrong:

  • Python 3 is not installed.
  • The software is launched in a way that it is not interpreted with Python 3.
  • The software is launched in a way that it is interpreted with Python 2 instead of Python 3.
  • One of the dependencies is missing (Tkinter, YAML).
  • The file czwigout.pyw is not marked as executable.
  • The files are owned by a different user such that they are not executable.

Basic Install—Mac

Unzip the archive and move it to somewhere you store local, portable applications.

If using a graphic file manager, you can option click on czwigout.pyw and select “Open With”, then “Python Launcher”. You will want to select a Python launcher that is version 3.

Dependencies—Mac

Python 3: OS X comes preloaded with Python 3 that is used by the system. But for this project, you need your own version of Python 3 installed from python.org. If given the choice, install it with Tkinter support.

Tkinter: Tkinter is a thin wrapper around Tcl/Tk GUI toolkit. For OS X, the Python project currently recommends that we install a more recent version of Tcl/Tk like the one from activestate.com. The Python version number, OS X version number, and Tcl/Tk version number must match as shown on this page.

LibYAML (optional): LibYAML makes it faster to read and write library files. If you are using homebrew, you can try the following. I have not tested this approach:

brew install libyaml

Other options for getting LibYAML are things you probably don’t want to mess with, like installing xcode and building it from source.

PyYAML: The easiest way to get the YAML module on OS X is to use pip, a package manager for Python. Open a terminal app and do something like this:

pip3 install pyyaml

Note that you need to use the pip that goes with the version of Python that you are using to run the software. You may want to specify the full path to the correct pip, or check that the right pip is being used, or check that things get installed in the right place.

Troubleshooting—Mac

If you launch the software on OS X, and something goes wrong, usually a window pops up with an error message. You can locate the key parts of the error message, and do an internet search for that text. That brings up users who have had a similar problem, and sometimes they post their solution.

If you launch the software and nothing happens, not even error messages, then you should try to launch the application from a command line. The command line reliably gives out error messages when something is wrong.

To launch the app from a command line, try this procedure. Open a terminal app and enter these commands:

cd /full/path/to/kasploosh/ python3 czwigout.pyw

“No module named tkinter”

This means the tkinter module is missing or not set up correctly. This could be because you are using the system version of Python 3, rather than your own installed version of Python 3. For this project, I recommend installing the latest release of Python 3 from python.org, and the matching ActiveTcl, as described in the dependencies section above.

Create A Launcher

Once the software is launching reliably, you may want to create a launcher on your desktop, so you can launch the application quickly. Open a terminal app, and try a procedure like this:

cd kasploosh cp support_files/czwigout.command ~/Desktop/ nano ~/Desktop/czwigout.command chmod 700 ~/Desktop/czwigout.command

On the third line, starting with nano, you will want to edit the path to czwigout.pyw to match where you placed the software.

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