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Installing E 0.8.12g on Unix-Like Platforms

Installing The Java Runtime

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Installing E

Unpack E into the directory in which you wish it to be installed. Please read the README.txt file and follow the instrustions. When you're done, you should have an "eprops.txt" file (E configuration preferences) and an "e" file (a bash driver script). For reference, here are my "eprops.txt" and "e" files after I tried to get these to work on my system. When you try to run the "e" driver from a bash shell, or similarly, when you try to run a *.e file as an executable, if you see the error

declare: unknown option: `-a'

this means your version of bash is too old. You should upgrade. See Bash Dependencies.

Let's say you installed E in the directory "/ehome" and you want to run the "elmer.e" script. If you cannot obtain an adequate bash for your platform, you can ignore the "e" driver script and invoke java yourself.

$ java -jar -De.home=/ehome /ehome/e.jar /ehome/scripts/elmer.e files...

If you do obtain an adequate version of bash, the "e" driver should work, and you should be able to say

$ e /ehome/scripts/elmer.e files...

If your system also has "/usr/bin/env" (as all modern *nix systems seem to these days) and you install a copy of the "e" driver on somewhere on your PATH, then you should be able to say

$ /ehome/scipts/elmer.e files...

And finally, if you put "/ehome/scripts" on your PATH (recommended), then you can simple say

$ elmer.e files..

and get the same effect. Or, you can manually invoke E without any scripts in order to get an E shell:

$ java -jar -De.home=/ehome /ehome/e.jar --interact
? 2 + 3
# value: 5

? #<Ctrl-D>

That last line indicates that you can exit the E command line interpreter by typing the Control-D character, as with many other Unix programs.

You should now proceed to the E Tutorial.