Installation¶

Requirements¶

ngpb4py requires:

• Python 3.10 or newer
• an Apptainer runtime available on PATH, or an absolute path passed to NgpbRunner

The package runs NextGenPB through a container image. The Python package alone is not sufficient without a working Apptainer installation.

Install The Package¶

If Apptainer is already installed on your system, install from PyPI:

pip install ngpb4py

If Apptainer is not installed, prefer the Conda environment included in this repository so the Python package and runtime are installed together:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pedrishi/ngpb4py/refs/heads/main/environment.yml
conda env create -f environment.yml
conda activate ngpb4py

For local development, examples, tests, and docs:

git clone https://github.com/pedrishi/ngpb4py.git
cd ngpb4py
uv sync --group dev

Verify The Runtime¶

Check the runtime and package import:

apptainer --version
python -c "import ngpb4py; print('ngpb4py import OK')"

Custom Runtime Path¶

If Apptainer is not on PATH, pass an explicit absolute path:

from ngpb4py import NgpbRunner

runner = NgpbRunner(apptainer_path="/opt/apptainer/bin/apptainer")

Container Images¶

By default, NgpbRunner uses the published NextGenPB .sif image. You can override it with a local file or remote URL:

runner = NgpbRunner(container_image="/data/images/NextGenPB-custom.sif")

Remote .sif URLs are downloaded and cached automatically when using Apptainer.