Erlang Quick Install

Before you can play around with Erlang, you’ll need to get it installed. There is a complete installation guide that covers all the configurations. This guide will give you a simple, minimal installation that will get your first Erlang shell running in no time.

• Install Erlang on Mac OS X
• Install Erlang on Linux
• Install Erlang on Windows
• Precompile package with latest versions
• Compiling Erlang from source

Install Erlang on Mac OS X

Using Homebrew:

brew install erlang

Using MacPorts:

sudo port install erlang

Install Erlang on Linux

Most operating systems have pre-built Erlang distributions in their package management systems.

For Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install erlang

For Fedora:

sudo yum install erlang

For FreeBSD

sudo pkg update
sudo pkg install erlang

Install Erlang on Windows

Download the Window installer

Precompile package with latest versions

Looking for the latest stable release or a previous Erlang version? Erlang Solutions provides a precompiled installation package for OS X, Windows, Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, CentOS, Raspbian and other platforms. They also provide an enterprise Erlang distribution.

Download from Erlang Solutions

Compiling Erlang from source

You can build Erlang from source on your own, using the Kerl script. Kerl is a script that lets you easily build different versions of Erlang with a few commands.

Download Kerl:

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/spawngrid/kerl/master/kerl
chmod +x kerl

Choose an available Erlang source release and build it like this (in this case we choose 18.0 and name it mybuild-18.0):

./kerl list releases
./kerl build 18.0 mybuild-18.0

Choose a directory to install, for example ~/erlang-r16b03

./kerl list builds
./kerl install mybuild-18.0 ~/erlang-18.0

Finally, add the directory ~/erlang-18.0/bin to your environment variable $PATH.

export PATH=$PATH:~/erlang-18.0/bin

Done!

Run erl in your terminal to start an Erlang shell:

$ erl
Erlang/OTP 18 [erts-7.0] [source] [64-bit] [smp:8:8] [async-threads:10] [hipe] [kernel-poll:false]
Eshell V7.0  (abort with ^G)
1>

Next Step: Building Your First Erlang App with Rebar3