purple-electrumwallet/quickstart.md

Quickstart — Electrum (running from source)

System prerequisites

sudo apt-get install git python3.12 python3.12-venv libsecp256k1-dev xvfb

libsecp256k1-dev avoids recompiling the C library locally. xvfb is only needed to run QML tests without a physical display.

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1. Clone the repository

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2. Create and activate the virtual environment

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate

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3. Install dependencies

Tests only (no GUI)

ELECTRUM_ECC_DONT_COMPILE=1 pip install -r contrib/requirements/requirements.txt \
  "cryptography>=2.6" "dnspython[DNSSEC]>=2.2,<2.5" \
  pytest coverage \
  "pycryptodomex>=3.7" pyaes \
  && ELECTRUM_ECC_DONT_COMPILE=1 pip install -e .

Tests + Qt/QML GUI (Android)

ELECTRUM_ECC_DONT_COMPILE=1 pip install -r contrib/requirements/requirements.txt \
  "cryptography>=2.6" "dnspython[DNSSEC]>=2.2,<2.5" \
  pytest coverage \
  "pycryptodomex>=3.7" pyaes \
  "pyqt6~=6.10" "pyqt6-qt6~=6.10" \
  && ELECTRUM_ECC_DONT_COMPILE=1 pip install -e .

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4. Run Electrum from source

# Qt GUI (default)
./run_electrum

# BitcoinPurple network
./run_electrum --bitcoinpurple

# BitcoinPurple testnet
./run_electrum --bitcoinpurple_testnet

# QML GUI (Android-style)
./run_electrum --gui qml

# Text UI (terminal)
./run_electrum --gui text

# Daemon mode
./run_electrum daemon -d

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5. Run tests

# All tests
pytest tests -v

# Parallel (requires pytest-xdist)
pytest tests -v -n auto

# Single file
pytest tests/test_bitcoin.py -v

# BitcoinPurple tests
pytest tests/test_bitcoinpurple.py -v

# blockchain + bitcoin + BitcoinPurple together
pytest tests/test_blockchain.py tests/test_bitcoin.py tests/test_bitcoinpurple.py -v

# QML tests (requires PyQt6 and xvfb)
xvfb-run pytest tests/qml/ -v

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Project structure (quick reference)

Path	Contents
run_electrum	Main entry point
electrum/constants.py	Network parameters (Bitcoin, BitcoinPurple, …)
electrum/blockchain.py	Header verification and PoW difficulty
electrum/wallet.py	Wallet logic
electrum/lnworker.py	Lightning Network
electrum/gui/qt/	Desktop Qt GUI
electrum/gui/qml/	Mobile QML GUI (Android)
electrum/chains/bitcoinpurple/	BitcoinPurple servers and checkpoints
tests/test_bitcoinpurple.py	BitcoinPurple test suite
contrib/requirements/	Dependency files