Getting started with deep learning in python...installation of keras with tensorflow backend

I've put these instructions down for installing keras to work with tensorflow in case they are helpful for others.

I'm going to assume that you are already on top of how to install python packages, or else have the excellent Anaconda (from continuum analytics) installed, which makes it easy via it's conda package manager (You can get it at https://www.continuum.io/).

If you have Anaconda installed, you should use its built-in package manager to install additional packages needed by keras:

conda install pyyaml
conda install h5py

You probably also want to make sure you are up to date with scipy, numpy, six:

conda upgrade six
conda upgrade scipy
conda upgrade numpy

Now, keras needs a back-end of either Theano or Tensorflow. I started using Tensorflow (for no particularly good reason, that's just what I picked). I just followed the Tensorflow setup instructions for Mac, which essentially consisted of typing the following at the command prompt:

pip install --upgrade https://storage.googleapis.com/tensorflow/mac/tensorflow-0.6.0-py2-none-any.whl

Now, finally, you want to install keras, which is the python library that sits atop Tensorflow/Theano and makes it easier to specify and train a neural network. You can clone the git repository which lives here. I just downloaded the zip file (from the same location), and unzipped it.

The keras website says to cd to the keras directory and run sudo python setup.py install

However, this did not work for me, because keras attempts to install Theano, and I had problems with that part of the install. Theano is listed as a dependency I suspect for historical reasons, even if you intend to use keras with a tensorflow backend. So, I just edited setup.py and removed theano as a dependency. By the time you read this, this issue will probably be fixed, and you wont need to edit setup.py.

Lastly, before you run keras, you need to create a .keras directory in your home folder, and in that directory, create a file called keras.json, and put the following in it: {"epsilon": 1e-07, "floatx": "float32", "backend": "tensorflow"}

Now, you should be able to run keras. At least this seems to have worked for me.