Checking Dependencies

Python-Markdown requires the ElementTree module to be installed. In Python2.5+ ElementTree is included as part of the standard library. For earlier versions of Python, open a Python shell and type the following:

>>> import cElementTree
>>> import ElementTree

If at least one of those does not generate any errors, then you have a working copy of ElementTree installed on your system. As cElementTree is faster, you may want to install that if you don't already have it and it's available for your system.

See http://effbot.org/zone/element-index.htm for more information or to download the latest version of ElementTree.

The Easy Way

The simplest way to install Python-Markdown is by using SetupTools. As and Admin/Root user on your system do:

easy_install ElementTree
easy_install Markdown

That's it, your done.

Installing on Windows

Download the Windows installer (.exe) from PyPI: http://pypi.python.org/packages/any/M/Markdown/Markdown-2.0.win32.exe

Double-click the file and follow the instructions.

If you prefer to manually install Python-Markdown in Windows, download the Zip file, unzip it, and on the command line in the directory you unzipped to:

python setup.py install

If you plan to use the provided command line script, you need to make sure your script directory is on your system path. On a typical Python install of Windows the Scripts directory is `C:\Python25\Scripts`. Adjust according to your system and add that to your system path.

Installing on *nix Systems

From the command line do the following:

wget http://pypi.python.org/packages/source/M/Markdown/Markdown-2.0.tar.gz
tar xvzf Markdown-2.0.tar.gz
cd markdown-2.0/
sudo python setup.py install

Using the Git Repository

If your the type that like to live on the edge, you may want to keep up with the latest additions and bug fixes in the repository between releases. Python-Markdown is maintained in a Git repository on Gitorious.org. To get a copy of Python-Markdown from the repository do the following from the command line:

git clone git://gitorious.org/python-markdown/mainline.git python-markdown
cd python-markdown
python setup.py install

Now what?

If you want to use markdown as a command-line tool, please proceed to Command Line. If you want to use it as a module, go to Using as a Module. If you want to use it with some of the popular frameworks (e.g., Django) or wikis (e.g., MoinMoin), go to Integration.