Running Mathics3

Here we describe the ways Mathics3 can be run.

Running natively

Command-line interface

If you have installed the Mathics3 core only you can start the rudimentary command-line shell with:

$ mathics

If you are running code from the source tree, i.e. “develop” mode, the the above is the same thing as running:

$ python mathics/main.py

To get a list of options run:

$ mathics --help

However note that the above CLI is pretty minimal and will stay that way.

Full Command-line Shell

The more complete command-line shell is mathicsscript.

After installing, run:

$ mathicsscript

To get a list of options run:

$ mathicsscript --help

Currently, mathicsscript requires networkx to support matplotlib graphics for the add-on package pymathics-natlang.

This may be unbundled in the future In the future.

Django-based-line interface

Chances are you that instead of running a command-line interface you will want to run the fancier Django-based web server. This does support graphics output currently (although in the future we plan to improve that).

To start the server after Mathics3 has been installed, run:

$ mathicsserver

The first time this command is run it will create the database file for saving your sessions. Issue

$ mathicsserver --help

to see a list of options.

You can set the used port by using the option -p, as in:

$ mathicsserver -p 8010

The default port for Mathics3 is 8000. Make sure you have the necessary privileges to start an application that listens to this port. Otherwise, you will have to run Mathics3 as super-user.

By default, the Web server is only reachable from your local machine. To be able to access it from another computer, use the option -e.

However, the server is only intended for local use, as it is a security risk to run it openly on a public Web server!

If you are running from the source tree and instead want run the webserver in a mode where if you make changes to the code, the webserver will get restarted, we have a GNU Makefile target for doing that.

Here, run:

$ make runserver

This is the same thing as running python mathics/manage.py runserver.

Passing options such as setting the port to listen on is a little different here because the option has to be a manage.py option and that works different.py. And to complicate things further you are running GNU Make and then have to pass tell that to pass over the manage.py option. So use pass o=8001 to make in order to pass option 8001 to manage.py. In other words, to set the port here to 8001:

$ make runserver o=8001 # note, no dash

Running via docker

Another way to run mathics is via docker using the Mathics3 docker image on dockerhub.

If you do a PyPI install of the package Mathics3 omnibus, you will get simpler access to the docker images and a simpler way to run the various parts.

To run the command-line interface using docker image without using the Mathics3 omnibus helper script:

$ docker run --rm -it --name mathics-cli -v /tmp:/usr/src/app/data mathicsorg/mathics --mode cli

However if Mathics3 omibus is installed:

$ dmathicsscript

does the same thing.

If you want to add options add them at then end preceded with --: for example:

$ docker run --rm -it --name mathics-cli -v /tmp:/usr/src/app/data mathicsorg/mathics --mode cli -- --help

In the above you are running mathicsscript (the enhanced CLI), not mathics.

To run the Django 3.1-web interface using docker image without using the Mathics3 omnibus helper script, run :

$ docker run --rm -it --name mathics-web -p 8000:8000 -v /tmp:/usr/src/app/data mathicsorg/mathics --mode ui

However the Mathics-omnibus-installed script for this simplifies this as well. So with that installed:

$ dmathicsserver

does the same thing.

Consult the docker-run command for information about changing external port number and other for other docker run options.

Also see the previous section on security limitations.

Running Mathics3 on your server

Here we describes how to setup Mathics3 on a local network. There are additional (security) considerations for running Mathics3 on a publicly facing webserver.

Best practices for a local network

  • Install PyPy

    sudo apt-get install pypy
    
  • Install Setuptools

    curl -O http://peak.telecommunity.com/dist/ez_setup.py
    pypy ez_setup.py
    
  • Download and Install Mathics

    curl -L  -O https://github.com/mathics/Mathics/releases/download/v0.8/mathics-0.8.tar.gz`
    tar xzf mathics-0.8.tar.gz
    cd mathics-0.8/
    sudo pypy setup.py install
    

You can now run the web server with mathicsserver -e but you probably want to make some changes first. - disable the files module by setting ENABLE_FILES_MODULE = False in mathics/settings.py (otherwise remote users will be able to read and write local files). - set an execution timeout in mathics/settings.py, e.g. TIMEOUT = 10 for a 10s limit. - Various other changes in the settings.py file like email addresses.

You probably also want to run the server as a restricted user within a jail shell

Running Mathics3 on a public webserver

Warning: You should be very careful running Mathics3 publicly, there are some potentially large security implications to be aware of!

The setup is similar but you can use ngnix to cache the static content. Mathics3 runs as a wsgi app so you can use uwsgi. The Django docs are a good reference.