FAQ

How do I install optional packages?

Sage has many optional packages (e.g. fricas, frobby, gap_jupyter, and many others) which are not installed by default, and are not included in the base Sage for Windows installer. To see a full list of available optional packages, at the command-line shell run:

$ sage -optional

In earlier versions of Sage for Windows it was not possible to install optional packages. In particular, because most optional packages have to be compiled on your local machine--we do not have binary packages for them (yet).

As of version 0.4.1 of the installer it is possible to build and compile optional packages, though it is a little buggy.

Note: If you installed Sage on your system "for all users", then it's necessary to run this command with Windows Administrator privileges. On Windows 10, this means right-click the SageMath Shell icon, and select "Run as administrator". If you installed Sage for single-user use (the default), this is not necessary, and in fact should be discouraged.

If you installed Sage with version 0.4.1 of the installer there are some missing dependencies for installation of optional packages to work. We can fix that though. Run the SageMath Shell, and at the command prompt run:

$ apt-cyg install m4 perl

To install the missing Cygwin packages.

With version 0.4.2 of the installer and later it is not necessary to do this. Now it should be possible to install many optional packages, like:

$ sage -i gap_jupyter

Note: Not all optional packages are known to work on Windows yet, but many do. If you find a package that does not install or does not work properly, please open an issue for this.

There is also some thought being given to building a release that includes many popular optional packages by default (#14). If you have a package that you would like to have included in Sage by default, please mention it there. If it does not add too much size to the installation we will consider it for a future release.