hledger/doc/github-release-doc.tmpl.md

Release notes (https://hledger.org/release-notes.html#hledger-A-BB)

Installing

At https://hledger.org/install, binary packages should be available for this release within a few days (look for green badges).

Or, you can build from source as described there, after cloning at tag A.BB: git clone https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger --depth 1 -b A.BB

Or, if under "Assets" below there are release binaries suitable for your OS and hardware, you can use those.

Here are platform-specific instructions for the release binaries. (You can copy & paste each block of commands as a unit to save time.):

GNU/Linux on 64-bit Intel

At the command line,

cd /usr/local/bin
curl -LOC- https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/releases/download/A.BB/hledger-linux-x64.zip   # can rerun if interrupted
unzip hledger-linux-x64.zip; tar xvf hledger-linux-x64.tar; rm hledger-linux-x64.{zip,tar}        # github workaround, preserves permissions
cd -
hledger --version  # should show the new version
touch $HOME/.hledger.journal   # ensure a default journal file exists

Mac on 64-bit Intel

In a terminal window,

cd /usr/local/bin
curl -LOC- https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/releases/download/A.BB/hledger-mac-x64.zip
unzip hledger-mac-x64.zip; tar xvf hledger-mac-x64.tar; rm hledger-mac-x64.{zip,tar}              # github workaround, preserves permissions
open .
# for the hledger, hledger-ui, hledger-web icons: right-click, Open, confirm it's ok to run
cd -
hledger --version  # should show the new version
touch $HOME/.hledger.journal   # ensure a default journal file exists

Windows 64-bit Intel (or Windows 11 Arm, using emulation)

In a powershell window (press Windows-r, type powershell, press enter),

1. Make a place to keep hledger binaries, and add it to your PATH; this makes running hledger easier. You only need to do this once, not for every release:

mkdir -force $HOME\bin >$null
$ENV:PATH += ";"+$HOME+"\bin"
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("Path", [Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("Path", [EnvironmentVariableTarget]::User)+";"+$HOME+"\bin", [EnvironmentVariableTarget]::User)

2. Download and install the release binaries:

cd $HOME\bin
curl https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/releases/download/A.BB/hledger-windows-x64.zip -OutFile hledger-windows-x64.zip
Expand-Archive hledger-windows-x64.zip -DestinationPath .
rm hledger-windows-x64.zip
cd $HOME
hledger --version           # should show the new version

3. Ensure a default journal file exists, and without a problematic encoding. (Not sure why "ascii" is needed here - hledger likes utf8 and understands utf8 BOM headers.. but the state of our unicode support on Windows is really unknown, your input welcome.)

out-file -append -encoding ascii $HOME/.hledger.journal

Once that journal file exists, you can start hledger-web by double-clicking on the icon if you wish.

Windows 7 on 64-bit Intel, using Firefox

• click hledger-windows-x64.zip below
• choose Open with Windows Explorer, OK
• click Extract all files
• choose a destination folder - ideally one that appears in echo %PATH%, like C:\Windows (though that one will require administrator permission); otherwise, your home directory (C:\Users\YOURNAME)
• check "Show extracted files when complete"
• click Extract, wait for the destination folder to open
• find the hledger, hledger-web icons (if you extracted to \Windows, you'll need to scroll down)
• for each icon: double-click, uncheck "Always ask before opening this file", click Run
• close those Explorer windows
• open a command window (press Windows-r, type CMD, press enter)
• hledger --version should show the new version
• echo # >> .hledger.journal to ensure a default journal file exists. (Important: the doubled >> is needed to avoid overwriting existing data.)

Problems:

• Starting hledger by double-clicking its icon won't work because it needs arguments; run it from the command window instead.
• Starting hledger-web by double-clicking its icon may fail eg because Explorer's command window is too small; configure that to be larger, or run hledger-web from a command window instead.
• hledger or hledger-web may fail to run if there is not enough memory available.

Next steps

• Get Started