Cloning and Setting Up a GitHub Repository with Python Virtual Environment⌗

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to:

Clone a GitHub repository.
Set up a Python virtual environment.
Install essential Python libraries.
Activate and deactivate the virtual environment.
Configure script execution policies on Windows.

Prerequisites⌗

IDE: You can use any IDE of your choice. We recommend using VS Code or PyCharm.
Install Git: Download Git
Install Python 3.10+: Download Python

1️⃣ Clone a GitHub Repository⌗

Open your terminal or command prompt and run:

# Replace <repo-url> with the repository URL
git clone <repo-url>

# Navigate into the cloned repository
cd <repo-folder>

Repository to clone for our Workshop:

git clone https://github.com/tensor-ioe/ML_Workshop_1_labs.git
cd ML_Workshop_1_labs

You can also use GitHub Desktop to clone repositories if you prefer a GUI.

Use the following command to pull the latest changes from the repository:

git pull

2️⃣ Create a `practice` Folder for excercises during the workshop⌗

Create a separate folder for practice within the project/repository:

mkdir practice
cd practice

3️⃣ Set Up Python Virtual Environment⌗

Install `venv` (if not already installed)⌗

# For Windows
python -m pip install --upgrade pip

# For Linux/Mac
python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip

Note: If you get a pip not found error, try using python -m ensurepip or python3 -m ensurepip to install pip. Also python/python3 are interchangeable depending on your system configuration.

Create a Virtual Environment⌗

# Windows
python -m venv <env_name>

# Linux/Mac
python3 -m venv <env_name>

Replace `<env_name>` with the name you want to give to your virtual environment.⌗

4️⃣ Activate the Virtual Environment⌗

Windows (Command Prompt):⌗

<env_name>\Scripts\activate

Windows (PowerShell):⌗

If you get a policy error, use this:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser

Or bypass it:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File script.ps1

More on Microsoft Script Execution Policy

Linux/Mac:⌗

source <env_name>/bin/activate

5️⃣ Install Necessary Python Libraries⌗

pip install notebook ipykernel numpy pandas matplotlib scikit-learn

To test if this worked, run the following command:

pip list

or you can create a file named test.py and write the following code:

import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import sklearn

print("All libraries installed successfully!")

and run the following command:

python test.py

6️⃣ Deactivate the Virtual Environment⌗

deactivate

Note: Now you can activate/deactivate the virtual environment whenever you want to work on the project by running the respective commands inside the project folder.

You’re All Set!⌗

Happy Coding!

Tutorial to setup python virtual environment for basic Machine Learning Project