The HERMES package is meant to provide the software means for the data reduction of all different observing modes available for the HERMES spectrograph mounted on the Mercator telescope. It is based on the python language and requires the installation of:

Python http://www.python.org/ we currently use version 2.7.6 This is the default installed on kubuntu 14.04.
numpy http://numpy.scipy.org/ we currently use version 1.8.1 Usage of a version previous to 1.3.0 will require that you install the separated "maskedarray" module. This is the first to install, next packages require this one.
PyFits http://www.stsci.edu/resources/software_hardware/pyfits This is the package that allows access to the fits files. We use standard version 3.2.2. Do NOT try to use another version, they are not really compatible. There are known bugs in previous versions, to access header entries by name.
pyLab http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/matplotlib.pylab.html This is the graph and plot package, we use version 1.3.0
sciPy http://www.scipy.org/ we currently use version 0.12.0 This package provides some usefull filter functions. To install above numpy.
pyEphem http://rhodesmill.org/pyephem/ This package provides lots of date, angle, and other calculations. It also provide some usefull constants. We use version 3.7.5.1.

From this version of hermes on, all packages may be installed in the correct version with PIP. It is highly recommended to do this way, even when everything is already installed, it will force the correct versions we need.

Install pip : download https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py run the following (which may require administrator access):
```
      python get-pip.py
```
Using pip, install all packages needed for this release. Pip will take the correct versions.
Go to the installation folder (the “hermes” called one) and issue these commands :
```
      svn up
      sudo pip install -r HermesDRS-requirements.txt
```
You MUST add your hermes folder to the pythonpath.
On Linux, /etc/profile (system-wide) should "export PYTHONPATH=$HOME/hermes" if you choosed to install in a folder called hermes in your home directory.
On windowz, "config panel / system / advanced / environment variables" is the place to add "PYTHONPATH=c:\hermes" as a user variable.