Installation#
Note
If you want to install the development version of cocotb, instructions are here.
Using cocotb requires installation of prerequisites and installation of cocotb itself.
Alternatively, you may use a package manager, see Alternative installation using a Package Manager.
In this document, we are assuming that you already have a
supported simulator available in PATH.
Installation of Prerequisites#
The current stable version of cocotb requires:
Python 3.6.2+
GNU Make 3+
A Verilog or VHDL simulator, depending on your RTL source code
Changed in version 1.7: Dropped requirement of Python development headers and C++ compiler for release versions.
Changed in version 1.6: Dropped Python 3.5 support
Changed in version 1.4: Dropped Python 2 support
Note
In order to use a 32-bit simulator you need to use a 32-bit version of Python.
Note
Type checking cocotb code requires Python 3.11+.
The installation instructions vary depending on your operating system:
We recommend users who are running Windows and who are more comfortable with a Unix shell, or who have legacy Makefile-based projects, to use Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). After installing WSL and a supported Linux distribution, follow the Linux installation instructions for cocotb.
Conda is an open-source package and environment management system that we recommend for users who are more comfortable with native Windows development. Download and install Miniconda from https://conda.io/. From an Anaconda Prompt, use the following line to install a compiler (GCC or Clang) and GNU Make:
conda install -c msys2 m2-base m2-make
In a terminal, run
sudo apt-get install make python3 python3-pip libpython3-dev
In a terminal, run
sudo yum install make python3 python3-pip python3-libs
We recommend using the Homebrew package manager. After installing it, run the following line in a terminal:
brew install python
Installation of cocotb#
You are reading the documentation for cocotb 2.0. To install this version, or any later compatible version, run
pip install "cocotb~=2.0"
Note
If your user does not have permissions to install cocotb using the instructions above,
try adding the --user option to pip
(see the pip documentation).
Warning
pip may belong to a different Python installation to what you expect.
Use pip -V to check.
If this prints “(python 2.7)”, use pip3 or python3 -m pip in place of pip in the command shown.
Alternative installation using a Package Manager#
The installation instructions vary depending on your package manager:
In a terminal, run
guix install python-cocotb
Post installation#
After installation, you should be able to execute cocotb-config.
If it is not found, you need to append its location to the PATH environment variable.
For more installation options, please see our Wiki.