Tag Archives: Genome Sciences

Install portal_client on Linux

A user asked for help installing Portal Client. Which is a:

Python-based client for downloading data files hosted by the an instance of the portal software developed by the GDC and further modified by the Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS)

You can install this in any directory that you have write permissions to, and you will need python3 installed.

Here are the quickie install instructions:

git clone https://github.com/IGS/portal_client;
python3 -m venv --copies VENV_portal_client;
source VENV_portal_client/bin/activate;
pip install -r portal_client/requirements.txt;
cd portal_client;
easy_install . ;

Any time you need to run the tool, source the Python Virtual Environment (virtualenv) and run the command. For example:

source VENV_portal_client/bin/activate;
portal_client --help;

If you use a lot of Python virtualenv’s, I suggest using the virtualenvwrapper tool, which makes it easier to manage and run many virtualenv’s:

https://virtualenvwrapper.readthedocs.io/en/latest/