Installing PyQt5

Downloading SIP

SIP must be installed before building and using PyQt5. You can get the latest release of the SIP source code from http://www.riverbankcomputing.com/software/sip/download.

The SIP documentation can be found at http://pyqt.sourceforge.net/Docs/sip4/.

Downloading PyQt5

You can get the latest release of the GPL version of the PyQt5 source code from http://www.riverbankcomputing.com/software/pyqt/download5.

If you are using the commercial version of PyQt5 then you should use the download instructions which were sent to you when you made your purchase. You must also download your license file.

Configuring PyQt5

After unpacking the source package (either a .tar.gz or a .zip file depending on your platform) you should then check for any README files that relate to your platform.

If you are using the commercial version of PyQt5 then you must copy your license file to the sip directory.

You need to make sure your environment variables are set properly for your development environment.

In order to configure the build of PyQt5 you need to run the configure.py script as follows:

python configure.py

This assumes that the Python interpreter is on your path. Something like the following may be appropriate on Windows:

c:\Python33\python configure.py

If you have multiple versions of Python installed then make sure you use the interpreter for which you wish to build PyQt5 for.

The full set of command line options is:

--assume-shared

Normally Qt is checked to see if it has been built as shared libraries. Some Linux distributions configure their Qt builds to make this check unreliable. This option ignores the result of the check and assumes that Qt has been built as shared libraries.

--bindir <DIR>

The pyuic5, pyrcc5 and pylupdate5 utilities will be installed in the directory <DIR>.

--concatenate

The C++ source files for a Python module will be concatenated. This results in significantly reduced compilation times. Most, but not all, C++ compilers can handle the large files that result. See also the --concatenate-split option.

--concatenate-split <N>

If the --concatenate option is used to concatenate the C++ source files then this option determines how many files are created. The default is 1.

--configuration <FILE>

<FILE> contains the configuration of the PyQt5 build to be used instead of dynamically introspecting the system and is used when cross-compiling. The configurations directory contains configuration files for a number of target devices.

--confirm-license

Using this confirms that you accept the terms of the PyQt5 license. If it is omitted then you will be asked for confirmation during configuration.

--consolidate

Normally each PyQt5 module (except for the Qt module) is linked against the corresponding Qt library. This option creates a module called _qt which is linked against all the required Qt libraries and the other modules are stub modules that populate their module dictionaries from this one. This is useful when linking against static Qt libraries to eliminate the need to distribute the Qt libraries while minimising the memory footprint of the PyQt5 modules.

--dbus <DIR>

The dbus-python.h header file of the dbus-python package can be found in the directory <DIR>/dbus.

--debug

The PyQt5 modules will be built with debugging symbols. On Windows this requires that a debug version of Python is installed.

--designer-plugindir <DIR>

The Python plugin for Qt Designer will be installed in the directory <DIR>.

--destdir <DIR>

The PyQt5 Python package will be installed in the directory <DIR>. The default is the Python installation’s site-packages directory. If you use this option then the PYTHONPATH environment variable must include <DIR>.

--enable <MODULE>

Normally all PyQt5 modules are enabled and are built if the corresponding Qt library can be found. Using this option only those modules specifically enabled will be checked for and built. The option may be specified any number of times.

--help, -h

Display a help message.

--no-designer-plugin

The Qt Designer plugin will not be built.

--no-docstrings

The PyQt5 modules will not contain automatically generated docstrings.

--no-qml-plugin

The qmlscene plugin will not be built.

--no-qsci-api

The PyQt5.api QScintilla API file is not installed even if QScintilla does appear to be installed.

--no-sip-files

The .sip files for the PyQt5 modules will not be installed.

--no-timestamp

Normally the header comments of each generated C/C++ source file includes a timestamp corresponding to when the file was generated. This option suppresses the inclusion of the timestamp.

--protected-is-public

On certain platforms the size of PyQt5 modules can be significantly reduced by redefining the C++ protected keyword as public during compilation. This option enables this behaviour and is the default on Linux and MacOS/X.

--protected-not-public

The default redefinition of protected to public during compilation on Linux and MacOS/X is disabled.

--pyuic5-interpreter <FILE>

<FILE> is the name of the Python interpreter used in the pyuic5 wrapper. The default is platform dependent.

--qmake <FILE>

Qt’s qmake program is used to determine how your Qt installation is laid out. Normally qmake is found on your PATH. This option can be used to specify a particular instance of qmake to use. This option is not available on Windows where qmake must be on PATH.

--qml-plugindir <DIR>

The Python plugin for qmlscene will be installed in the directory <DIR>.

--qsci-api

The PyQt5.api QScintilla API file is installed even if QScintilla does not appear to be installed. This option is implied if the --qsci-api-destdir option is specified.

--qsci-api-destdir <DIR>

The QScintilla API file will be installed in the python subdirectory of the api subdirectory of the directory <DIR>.

--sip <FILE>

The sip program is used to generate PyQt5’s C++ source code. Normally sip is found on your PATH. This option can be used to specify a particular instance of sip to use.

--sip-incdir <DIR>

The sip.h header file can be found in the directory <DIR>.

--sipdir <DIR>

The .sip files for the PyQt5 modules will be installed in the directory <DIR>.

--spec <SPEC>

The argument -spec SPEC will be passed to qmake. The default behaviour is platform specific. On Windows configure.py will choose the value that is correct for the version of Python that is being used. (However if you have built Python yourself then you may need to explicitly specify <SPEC>.) On MacOS configure.py will try and avoid macx-xcode if possible.)

--static

The PyQt5 modules will be built as static libraries. This is useful when building a custom interpreter with the PyQt5 modules built in to the interpreter.

--trace

The generated PyQt5 modules contain additional tracing code that is enabled using SIP’s sip.settracemask() function.

--vendorid

The checking of signed Python interpreters using the VendorID package is enabled. See also the --vendorid-incdir and --vendorid-libdir options and Deploying Commercial PyQt5 Applications.

--vendorid-incdir <DIR>

The header file of the VendorID package can be found in the directory <DIR>.

--vendorid-libdir <DIR>

The library of the VendorID package can be found in the directory <DIR>.

--verbose

Compiler commands and any output issued during configuration is displayed instead of being suppressed. Use this if configure.py is having problems to see what exactly is going wrong.

--version

Display the PyQt5 version number.

Any remaining command line arguments are expected to be in the form name=value or name+=value. Such arguments are added to any qmake .pro file created by configure.py.

Building PyQt5

The next step is to build PyQt5 by running your platform’s make command. For example:

make

The final step is to install PyQt5 by running the following command:

make install

(Depending on your system you may require root or administrator privileges.)

This will install the various PyQt5 components.

Co-existence with PyQt4

PyQt5 can be installed alongside PyQt4 using the same Python interpreter without any problems so long as they are built with the same versions of SIP.

Table Of Contents

Previous topic

Introduction

Next topic

Differences Between PyQt4 and PyQt5