Installing

Avocado is primarily written in Python, so a standard Python installation is possible and often preferable. You can also install from your distro repository, if available.

Note

Please note that this installs the Avocado core functionality. Many Avocado features are distributed as non-core plugins. Visit the Avocado Plugin section on the left menu.

Tip

If you are looking for Virtualization specific testing, also consider looking at Avocado-VT installation instructions after finishing the Avocado installation.

Installing from PyPI

The simplest installation method is through pip. On most POSIX systems with Python 3.4 (or later) and pip available, installation can be performed with a single command:

$ pip3 install --user avocado-framework

This will fetch the Avocado package (and possibly some of its dependecies) from the PyPI repository, and will attempt to install it in the user’s home directory (usually under ~/.local), which you might want to add to your PATH variable if not done already.

Tip

If you want to perform a system-wide installation, drop the --user switch.

If you want even more isolation, Avocado can also be installed in a Python virtual environment. with no additional steps besides creating and activating the “venv” itself:

$ python3 -m venv /path/to/new/virtual_environment
$ source /path/to/new/virtual_environment/bin/activate
$ pip3 install avocado-framework

Installing from packages

Fedora

Avocado modules are available on standard Fedora repos starting with version 29. To subscribe to the latest version stream, run:

$ dnf module enable avocado:latest

Or, to use the LTS (Long Term Stability) version stream, run:

$ dnf module enable avocado:69lts

Then proceed to install a module profile or individual packages. If you’re unsure about what to do, simply run:

$ dnf module install avocado

Enterprise Linux

Avocado modules are also available on EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) repos, starting with version 8. To enable the EPEL repository, run:

$ dnf install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm

Then to enable the module, run:

$ dnf module enable avocado:latest

And finally, install any number of packages, such as:

$ dnf install python3-avocado python3-avocado-plugins-output-html python3-avocado-plugins-varianter-yaml-to-mux

Latest Development RPM Packages from COPR

Avocado provides a repository of continuously built packages from the GitHub repository’s master branch. These packages are currently available for some of the latest Enterprise Linux and Fedora versions, for a few different architectures.

If you’re interested in using the very latest development version of Avocado from RPM packages, you can do so by running:

$ dnf copr enable @avocado/avocado-latest
$ dnf install python*-avocado*

The following image shows the status of the Avocado packages building on COPR:

https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/g/avocado/avocado-latest/package/python-avocado/status_image/last_build.png

OpenSUSE

The OpenSUSE project packages LTS versions of Avocado. You can install packages by running the following commands:

$ sudo zypper install avocado

Debian

DEB package support is available in the source tree (look at the contrib/packages/debian directory. No actual packages are provided by the Avocado project or the Debian repos.

Installing from source code

First make sure you have a basic set of packages installed. The following applies to Fedora based distributions, please adapt to your platform:

$ sudo dnf install -y python3 git gcc python3-devel python3-pip libvirt-devel libffi-devel openssl-devel libyaml-devel redhat-rpm-config xz-devel

Then to install Avocado from the git repository run:

$ git clone git://github.com/avocado-framework/avocado.git
$ cd avocado
$ sudo python3 setup.py install