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urbit.org/docs/using/install.md
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1---
2navhome: /docs/
3navuptwo: true
4next: true
5sort: 1
6title: Install
7---
9# Install
11Installing Urbit is easy. It just takes a few minutes to get an
12instance up and running on the network.
14Urbit is designed to run on any Unix box with an internet connection.
15macOS, Ubuntu/Debian, FreeBSD, and Fedora all work well.
17If you run into trouble installing Urbit, please let us know via
18email, [questions@urbit.org](mailto:questions@urbit.org), or on the
19forum: [fora.urbit.org](https://fora.urbit.org). You can also chat
20with us at [urbit.org/stream](https://urbit.org/stream).
22> Urbit is alpha software. It’s not yet completely stable, its crypto
23> hasn’t been audited, and there are plenty of rough edges. Urbit is
24> lots of fun to play with, but not quite ready for your important or
25> sensitive data.
27## Build from source
29### Dependencies
31Urbit depends on:
33```
34autoconf
35automake
36C compiler (gcc or clang)
37cmake
38curses
39git
40gmp
41libcurl
42libsigsegv
43libtool
44libuv
45meson
46ninja
47openssl
48pkg-config
49python2
50ragel
51re2c
52```
54### Instructions
56First, you'll install the required dependencies to build Urbit from source. Then, you'll clone the Urbit source code, hosted on Github. Next, you'll bootstrap the Git submodules needed for the build. Lastly, you'll run a [Meson](https://github.com/mesonbuild/meson) build on the Urbit source to create your Urbit binary for your host operating system. Then, finally, you'll be able to boot your urbit.
58For your host OS platform and relevant package installer, run the respective Bash shell commands listed below in a fresh terminal window to get Urbit installed:
60> For those new to the command line, see:
62> - Mac: [Introduction to the Mac OS X Command Line](http://blog.teamtreehouse.com/introduction-to-the-mac-os-x-command-line)
63> - Linux: [An Introduction to the Linux Terminal](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/an-introduction-to-the-linux-terminal)
65#### macOS
67##### Homebrew
69> [Homebrew installation guide](https://treehouse.github.io/installation-guides/mac/homebrew)
71```
72# Bash
74brew update
75brew install autoconf automake cmake gcc git gmp libsigsegv libtool meson ninja pkg-config python2 openssl re2c
76git clone https://github.com/urbit/urbit
77cd urbit
78./scripts/bootstrap
79./scripts/build
80sudo ninja -C ./build/ meson-install
81urbit
82```
84##### Macports
86```
87# Bash
89sudo port selfupdate
90sudo port install autoconf automake cmake gmp libsigsegv meson openssl
91git clone https://github.com/urbit/urbit
92cd urbit
93./scripts/bootstrap
94./scripts/build
95sudo ninja -C ./build/ meson-install
96urbit
97```
99#### Linux
101##### Linuxbrew
103> [Linuxbrew](http://linuxbrew.sh/)
105```
106# Bash
108brew update
109brew install autoconf automake cmake gcc git gmp libsigsegv libtool meson ninja pkg-config python2 openssl re2c
110git clone https://github.com/urbit/urbit
111cd urbit
112./scripts/bootstrap
113./scripts/build
114sudo env "PATH=$PATH" ninja -C ./build/ meson-install
115urbit
116```
118##### Ubuntu or Debian
120```
121# Bash
123sudo apt-get update
124sudo apt-get install autoconf automake cmake exuberant-ctags g++ git libcurl4-gnutls-dev libgmp3-dev libncurses5-dev libsigsegv-dev libssl-dev libtool make ninja-build openssl pkg-config python python3 python3-pip ragel re2c zlib1g-dev
125sudo -H pip3 install --upgrade pip
126sudo -H pip3 install meson
127git clone https://github.com/urbit/urbit
128cd urbit
129./scripts/bootstrap
130./scripts/build
131sudo ninja -C ./build/ install
132urbit
133```
135N.B. if the step `./scripts/build` fails when attempting to
136build libh2o, it could be caused by a bug in version 0.46 of meson (the bug
137is not present in 0.45 and is fixed in 0.47).
139If the command `meson -v` returns a version starting with 0.46, try these steps:
141```
142brew uninstall meson
143pip install meson=0.47.0
144rm -rf build
145build/scripts
146```
148If that is successful, resume the above instructions after the `build` step.
152##### Fedora / Redhat
154```
155# Bash
157sudo dnf upgrade
158sudo dnf install autoconf automake cmake ctags gcc gcc-c++ git gmp-devel libcurl-devel libsigsegv-devel libtool ncurses-devel ninja-build openssl openssl-devel pkgconfig python2 python3 ragel re2c
159sudo -H pip3 install --upgrade pip
160sudo -H pip3 install meson
161git clone https://github.com/urbit/urbit
162cd urbit
163./scripts/bootstrap
164./scripts/build
165sudo ninja -C ./build/ meson-install
166urbit
167```
169##### FreeBSD
171```
172# Bash or Sh
174pkg upgrade
175sudo pkg install autoconf automake cmake curl gcc git gmake gmp libsigsegv libtool python python3 ragel re2c ncurses openssl gmp
176curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py -o get-pip.py
177sudo python3 get-pip.py
178sudo -H pip install --upgrade pip
179sudo -H pip install meson
180sudo pkg install ninja
181git clone https://github.com/urbit/urbit
182cd urbit
183sh ./scripts/bootstrap
184sh ./scripts/build
185sudo ninja -C ./build/ meson-install
186urbit
187```
189(tested on Google Cloud Platform FreeBSD 10.4 and 11.2 on 4 July 2018)
191##### Arch
193```
194# Bash
196pacman -Syu
197pacman -S autoconf automake cmake curl gcc git gmp libsigsegv libtool ncurses ninja openssl python ragel re2c
198sudo -H pip3 install --upgrade pip
199sudo -H pip3 install meson
200git clone https://github.com/urbit/urbit
201cd urbit
202./scripts/bootstrap
203./scripts/build
204sudo ninja -C ./build/ meson-install
205urbit
206```
208##### AWS
210```
211# Bash
213sudo yum update
214sudo yum install --enablerepo epel autoconf automake cmake ctags gcc gcc-c++ git gmp-devel libcurl-devel libsigsegv-devel libtool meson ncurses-devel openssl-devel pkgconfig python re2c
215git clone https://github.com/urbit/urbit
216cd urbit
217./scripts/bootstrap
218./scripts/build
219sudo ninja -C ./build/ meson-install
220urbit
221```
223### Test for successful installation
225After running your installed `urbit` command, check to see if the following output was printed:
227```
228$ urbit
229Urbit: a personal server operating function
230https://urbit.org
231Version 0.5.1
233Usage: urbit [options...] ship_name
234where ship_name is a @p phonetic representation of an urbit address
235without the leading '~', and options is some subset of the following:
237-A dir Use dir for initial galaxy sync
238-b Batch create
239-B pill Bootstrap from this pill
240-c pier Create a new urbit in pier/
241-d Daemon mode
242-D Recompute from events
243-F Fake keys; also disables networking
244-f Fuzz testing
245-g Set GC flag
246-H domain Set ames bootstrap domain (default urbit.org)
247-I galaxy Start as ~galaxy
248-k stage Start at Hoon kernel version stage
249-l port Initial peer port
250-M Memory madness
251-n host Set unix hostname
252-N Enable networking in fake mode (-F)
253-p ames_port Set the HTTP port to bind to
254-P Profiling
255-q Quiet
256-r host Initial peer address
257-R Report urbit build info
258-s Pill URL from arvo git hash
259-t ticket Use ~ticket automatically
260-u url URL from which to download pill
261-v Verbose
262-w name Immediately upgrade to ~name
263-x Exit immediately
264-Xwtf Skip last event
266Development Usage:
267 To create a development ship, use a fakezod:
268 urbit -FI zod -A /path/to/arvo/folder -B /path/to/pill -c zod
270 For more information about developing on urbit, see:
271 https://github.com/urbit/urbit/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md
273Simple Usage:
274 urbit -c <mycomet> to create a comet (anonymous urbit)
275 urbit -w <myplanet> -t <myticket> if you have a ticket
276 urbit <myplanet or mycomet> to restart an existing urbit
277```
279If so, then you're ready to boot your urbit. If not, check that you entered each Bash command correctly for your host OS platform. If you're still experiencing issues, feel free to drop into [Urbit chat](https://urbit.org/stream) for troubleshooting help.
281### Boot your urbit
283You've now installed the Urbit binary. If you're running Urbit on a normal modern PC or Mac, or
284on a large cloud instance, move onto the next [setup](../setup/) section.
286If you're running Urbit in the cloud on a small instance, read
287the below section, as you may need to additionally configure swap space, then continue.
289### (Set up swap)
291Urbit wants to map 2GB of memory when it boots up. We won’t necessarily
292use all this memory, we just want to see it. On a normal modern PC or Mac,
293or on a large cloud virtual machine, this is not an issue. On some small
294cloud virtual machines (Amazon or Digital Ocean), the default memory
295configuration is smaller than this, and you need to manually configure a
296swapfile.
298Digital Ocean has a post on adding swap
299[here](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-add-swap-space-on-ubuntu-16-04).
300For Amazon there’s a StackOverflow thread
301[here](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17173972/how-do-you-add-swap-to-an-ec2-instance).
303Don’t spend a lot of time tweaking these settings; the simplest
304thing is fine.