Installation

Requirements

Build Dependencies

Dependency	Link
CMake	http://www.cmake.org/
ecbuild	ecmwf/ecbuild
Pybind11	https://pybind11.readthedocs.io

Runtime Dependencies

Dependency	Link
eccodes	ecmwf/eccodes
eckit	ecmwf/eckit
metkit	ecmwf/mekit

Python Dependencies

numpy
pytest
pytest-asyncio
eccodes
build
setuptools
GitPython
sphinx
sphinxcontrib-mermaid
pydata-sphinx-theme
Sphinx
sphinx-autoapi
sphinx-tabs

Build from sources (recommended way):

To install PyFDB from the sources you first need to create a directory which will contain our bundle file. A bundle file represents a subset of our stack; at least the dependencies we need to build PyFDB.

Create a folder stack and switch to it:

mkdir stack && cd stack

Place the following CMakeLists.txt in it

cmake_minimum_required( VERSION 3.18 FATAL_ERROR )

find_package( ecbuild 3.8 REQUIRED HINTS ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR} $ENV{HOME}/.local/ecbuild)

project( ecmwf_stack_bundle VERSION 0.0.1 LANGUAGES CXX)

set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 17)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED ON)
set(CMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS ON)

ecbuild_bundle_initialize()

ecbuild_bundle( PROJECT eckit       GIT "ssh://git@github.com/ecmwf/eckit"        BRANCH develop    UPDATE )
ecbuild_bundle( PROJECT eccodes     GIT "ssh://git@github.com/ecmwf/eccodes"      BRANCH develop    UPDATE )
ecbuild_bundle( PROJECT metkit      GIT "ssh://git@github.com/ecmwf/metkit"       BRANCH develop    UPDATE )
ecbuild_bundle( PROJECT fdb         GIT "ssh://git@github.com/ecmwf/fdb"          BRANCH develop    UPDATE )
ecbuild_bundle( PROJECT gribjump    GIT "ssh://git@github.com/ecmwf/gribjump"     BRANCH develop    UPDATE )

ecbuild_bundle_finalize()

In the stack folder, create a build folder

mkdir build && cd build

Run the following cmake command to configure the stack with its dependencies:

cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=../install \
      -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo \
      .. -G Ninja \
      -DENABLE_MEMFS=ON \
      -DENABLE_PYTHON_FDB_INTERFACE=ON \
      -DENABLE_FDB_DOCUMENTATION=OFF

Tip

The cmake variables can be changed accordingly. Use at least the -DENABLE_PYTHON_FDB_INTERFACE to build PyFDB.

You can also switch to make by dropping -G Ninja.

For certain functions of the PyFDB we need an active python venv. If you use uv, you can create and activate a venv in the root of this bundle (where the CMakeLists.txt is located):

uv venv
source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install -r fdb/requirements.txt
# Add those requirements if you want to build the docs locally
uv pip install -r fdb/docs/fdb/requirements.txt

After configuration with cmake run ninja in the created build folder:

ninja

If the command exists successfully, adjust your PYTHONPATH to:

export PYTHONPATH=<path-to-build-folder>/pyfdb-python-package-staging:<path-to-stack-folder>/fdb/src

Afterwards, verify whether the tests are successfully running, by switching to the test folder of PyFDB and execute pytest:

cd <path-to-stack-folder>/fdb/tests/pyfdb
pytest

Installation via PyPI

Install the package from pypi in your venv:

uv venv
source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install pyfdb

Set the FDB_HOME environment variable accordingly:

export FDB_HOME=<path_to_fdb_home>