Installation¶

You can install binary Python-Blosc2 wheels from PyPI with pip, from conda-forge with conda, or build from a clone of the GitHub repository.

Pip¶

pip install blosc2 --upgrade

Conda¶

conda install -c conda-forge python-blosc2

Optional features (extras)¶

The base install includes everything needed for compression and the array machinery. Heavier, feature-specific dependencies are kept out of it and grouped into extras that you opt into with the blosc2[extra] syntax:

Extra	Adds
`tui`	The b2view terminal browser (`textual`, `textual-plotext`), including its in-terminal braille plot (the `p` key). Required by the `b2view` command.
`hires`	The high-resolution image view in b2view (the `h` key), which renders a real `matplotlib` image in the terminal (`textual-image`, `matplotlib`). Includes `tui`.
`parquet`	The `parquet-to-blosc2` converter (`pyarrow`); see Parquet to Blosc2 Walkthrough.
`fsspec`	Reading and writing single-file containers through any fsspec URL. The driver for each protocol is a separate install (`s3fs` for `s3://`, `gcsfs` for `gs://`, `adlfs` for `abfs://`…), and credentials are configured through the driver, not through blosc2.

Install one or more extras by listing them in brackets (quote the argument in shells like zsh that treat brackets specially):

pip install "blosc2[tui]"             # the b2view terminal browser
pip install "blosc2[hires]"           # b2view + its high-res view (h key)
pip install "blosc2[parquet]"         # the Parquet converter
pip install "blosc2[fsspec]" s3fs     # fsspec URLs, plus the S3 driver
pip install "blosc2[tui,parquet]"     # several at once

With the fsspec extra, blosc2.open() accepts any fsspec URL, chained ones included, and reads it whole, through a local cache (cache_storage=), or by fetching only the chunks and blocks a slice touches (lazy=True); see blosc2.open() and FsspecNDSource for what each mode supports. examples/ndarray/rw-fsspec.py walks through all three plus the write side, and examples/ndarray/concurrent-fsspec.py shows what overlapping the fetches buys; both run with no network or credentials.

Source code¶

git clone https://github.com/Blosc/python-blosc2/
cd python-blosc2
pip install . --group test   # install with test dependencies

(the --group flag needs pip >= 25.1). That’s all. You can proceed with the testing section now.

Testing¶

After installing, you can quickly check that the package is sane by running the tests:

pytest  # add -v for verbose mode

Benchmarking¶

If curious, you may want to run a small benchmark that compares a plain NumPy array copy against compression through different compressors in your Blosc build:

PYTHONPATH=. python bench/pack_compress.py