# Getting started

Since CherryPy is pure Python and has no dependencies, obtaining and installing it is a snap. You can install using a release package, or by using Subversion.

## Installing CherryPy from a release package

### Obtaining a release package

A "release package" is an official stable release of CherryPy. It means that the main features and issues that were decided to be integrated and fixed for a particular milestone, have been.

The latest package is available from the sourceforge repository of the CherryPy project. You need to pick up the latest version of the package.

### Installing from a release package

Installing CherryPy from a release package will take three steps only. Type the following commands :

`tar` zxvf CherryPy-2.1.0.tar.gz

Which will create the CherryPy-2.1.0 directory.

`cd` CherryPy-2.1.0

Then issue the following command (if you are under Unix or Linux, you should be root):

`python` setup.py install

## Installing CherryPy from the Subversion repository

### Obtaining the package from the Subversion repository

The CherryPy project uses Subversion to control access to its source code. Getting CherryPy from the latest changeset is sometimes required because a bugfix or a feature is only available from it. Keep in mind that subversion code is subject to change on a regular basis; therefore, only use it if you know what you are doing.

To get the latest source code from the subversion repository, you first need to install a SVN client. On Microsoft Windows, TortoiseSVN is a good choice. Under Linux, you can either use the svn command line tools or use a graphical user interface such as eSVN.

Once you have installed a svn client, you need to type the following command :

`svn` co http://svn.cherrypy.org

This will download the complete source code to your computer.

### Installing the package from the Subversion repository

If you have downloaded the source code from the CherryPy subversion repository, then you should have a directory called svn.cherrypy.org. Then type the following commands:

`cd` svn.cherrypy.org/trunk

Then issue the following command (as root if you are under Unix/Linux):

`python` setup.py install

Alternately, since CherryPy has no dependencies, you don't have to run setup.py. Simply checkout the code into a directory which is on your Python path, such as your site-packages directory.

## Running the test programs

If you have installed CherryPy from the source code downloaded from the subversion repository, you can run the test suite to check if everything is fine on your system. Type the following commands:

`cd` svn.cherrypy.org/trunk/cherrypy/test `python` test.py

If all tests pass, then they will be flagged as `ok`. If an error occurs, please visit the main CherryPy website to report the issue.