Installation

BICAM is available on PyPI and can be installed using pip.

Requirements

  • Python 3.8 or higher

  • 12GB+ free disk space (for the complete dataset)

  • Internet connection for downloads

Basic Installation

Install BICAM using pip:

pip install bicam

For the latest development version:

pip install git+https://github.com/bicam-data/bicam.git

Using conda

BICAM is not yet available on conda-forge, but you can install it in a conda environment:

conda create -n bicam python=3.11
conda activate bicam
pip install bicam

Verification

After installation, verify that BICAM is working:

bicam --version
bicam list

You should see the version number and a list of available datasets.

Configuration

BICAM uses sensible defaults and requires no configuration. However, you can customize:

Cache Directory

By default, BICAM stores downloaded data in the following locations:

Platform

Default Cache Directory

Windows

%LOCALAPPDATA%\bicam

macOS/Linux

~/.bicam

To use a custom cache directory:

export BICAM_DATA=/path/to/custom/cache
bicam download bills

Environment Variables

Variable

Description

BICAM_DATA

Custom cache directory

BICAM_LOG_LEVEL

Logging level (DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR)

Troubleshooting

Permission Errors If you encounter permission errors on Windows, try running as administrator or use a different cache directory.

Disk Space Ensure you have sufficient disk space. The complete dataset requires ~12GB, and requires intermediate storage when downloading the data.

Network Issues BICAM requires internet access to download datasets. Check your firewall settings if downloads fail.

Python Version BICAM requires Python 3.8+. Check your version with:

python --version