FAQ#
Tips and Tricks for Windows Users#
Anaconda Installation Notes for Windows Users
Please follow these steps unless you know what you are doing.
Download the Graphical Installer for Python 3.x.
Start the installer and click yourself through the menu. If you have administrator privileges on your computer, it is preferable to install Anaconda for all users. Otherwise, you may run into problems when running python from your powershell.
Make sure to (only) tick the following box:
‘’Register Anaconda as my default Python 3.x’’. Finish installation.
Navigate to the folder containing your Anaconda distribution. This folder contains multiple subfolders. Please add the path to the folder called
condabin
to your PATH environmental variable. This path should end inAnaconda3/condabin
. You can add paths to your PATH by following these instructions.Please start Windows Powershell in administrator mode, and execute the following:
$ set-executionpolicy remotesigned
Now (re-)open Windows Powershell and initialize it for full conda use by running
$ conda init
Warning
If you still run into problems when running conda and python from powershell, it is advisable to use the built-in Anaconda Prompt instead.
Integrating git tab completion in Windows Powershell#
Powershell does not support tab completion for git automatically. However, there is a nice utility called posh-git. We advise you to install this as this makes your life easier.
PATH environmental variable in Windows#
In Windows, one has to oftentimes add the programs manually to the PATH environmental variable in the Advanced System Settings. See here for a detailed explanation of how to do that.
Adding directories to the PATH: MacOS and Linux#
Open the program Terminal. You will need to add a line to the file .bash_profile
and potentially create the file. This file lives in your home directory, in the Finder
it is hidden from your view by default.
Linux users: For most distributions, everything here applies to the file .bashrc
instead of .bash_profile
.
I will now provide a step-by-step guide of how to create / adjust this file using the
editor called code
. If you are familiar with editing text files, just use your editor
of choice.
Open a Terminal and type
code ~/.bash_profile
If you use an editor other than VS Code, replace
code
by the respective editor.If
.bash_profile
already existed, you will see some text at this point. If so, use the arrow keys to scroll all the way to the bottom of the file.Add the following line at the end of the file
export PATH="${PATH}:/path/to/program/inside/package"
You will need to follow the same steps as before. Example for Stata:
# Stata directory export PATH="${PATH}:/Applications/Stata/StataMP.app/Contents/MacOS/"
In
/Applications/Stata/StataMP.app
, you may need to replace bits and pieces as appropriate for your installation (e.g. you might not have StataMP but StataSE).Similarly for Matlab or the likes.
Press
Return
and thenctrl+o
(= WriteOut = save) andReturn
once more.
Stata failure: FileNotFoundError#
The following failure:
FileNotFoundError: No such file or directory: '/Users/xxx/econ/econ project templates/bld/add_variables.log'
has a simple solution: Get rid of all spaces in the path to the project. (i.e.,
econ-project-templates
instead of econ project templates
in this case). To do so, do
not rename your user directory, that will cause havoc. Rather move the project
folder to a different location.
I have not been able to get Stata working with spaces in the path in batch mode, so this has nothing to do with Python or pytask. If anybody finds a solution, please let me know.
Stata failure: missing file#
If you see an error like this one:
-> missing file: '/Users/xxx/econ/econ-project/templates/bld/add_variables.log'
check that you have a license for the Stata version that is found (the Stata tool just checks availability top-down, i.e., MP-SE-IC, in case an MP-Version is found and you just have a license for SE, Stata will silently refuse to start up).
The solution is to remove all versions of Stata from its executable directory (e.g., /usr/local/stata) that cost more than your license did.