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Installing E 0.8.9.1 on Unix/Linux

E can be installed on Linux from the binary distribution, compiled for the 386 architecture and a glibc-supporting version of Linux (this includes RedHat 6.1, which is what we're using). If you need E for a different Unix/Linux configuration, you should build E from source instead.

There are two ways of installing E: A personal installation, and a root installation.

Personal Installation

A personal installation requires no privileges, and different users can play with separate installations without conflict. On the other hand, older E scripts (*.e files) often begin with "#!/usr/local/bin/e". A personal installation cannot cause "e" to be placed there, and therefore cannot allow E scripts to appear directly as shell commands. In other word, you'll always need to say, for example, "e findall.e ..." rather than "findall.e ...".

Note: To avoid this problem, we are switching to the same technique Python uses: making the first line of an E script be "#!/usr/bin/env e". You should do this in all your E scripts as well. With this initial line, the e used will be the first e found on your PATH. Thanks to Dan Bornstein for this suggestion.

To do a personal install, create the directory where you wish E to be installed, and unpack the binary distribution there:

$ mkdir ehome
$ cd ehome

# download tl-otc-E-linux-i386-glibc-0.8.9.1b.tar.gz to here
$ tar xzf tl-otc-E-linux-i386-glibc-0.8.9.1b.tar.gz

Among the files that appear, you want to run personal-install.sh

$ ./personal-install.sh
Starting E
Installed at <file:/home/markm/ehome>
We seem to be headless

Welcome to E 0.8.9.1
You should "source" your ~/.bash_profile
or otherwise set your EHOME environment variable to /home/markm/ehome

The personal installer placed a copy of the "e" command in your ~/bin directory. However, before E can successfully run, it needs to know where its home is -- the directory in which you unpacked the binary distribution. So that it will know in the future, it appended to your ~/.bash_profile file instructions to set the EHOME environment variable the next time you log in. That's fine for next time, but what about now? As it explains above, you can now either

$ source ~/.bash_profile

or

$ EHOME=/home/markm/ehome
$ export EHOME

obviously, substituting wherever you installed it for /home/markm/ehome. You should now be able to run E programs:

$ e
? 2 + 3
# value: 5

? #<Ctrl-D>

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

Above, the "We seem to be headless" is printed out is you run the installer from a character terminal (or its moral equivalent) rather than an X terminal. If install from an X terminal, the welcome message should be in the form of a swing monologue box with an Ok button.

You should now proceed to the E Tutorial.

Root Installation

A root installation requires root privilege in order to install E in a canonical shared location. Older E scripts (*.e files) often begin with "#!/usr/local/bin/e". A root installation installs the shared E files in "/usr/local/e" and places a copy of the "e" command at "/usr/local/bin/e" so that E commands can be run directly as executable commands.

Note: To avoid this issue, we are switching to the same technique Python uses: making the first line of an E script be "#!/usr/bin/env e". You should do this in all your E scripts as well. With this initial line, the e used will be the first e found on your PATH. Thanks to Dan Bornstein for this suggestion.

To do a root install, create a working directory and unpack the binary distribution there:

$ mkdir efoo
$ cd efoo
# download tl-otc-E-linux-i386-glibc-0.8.9.1b.tar.gz to here
$ tar xzf tl-otc-E-linux-i386-glibc-0.8.9.1b.tar.gz

Among the files that appear, you want to run root-install.sh as root

$ su - root
Password:
# ./root-install.sh
Starting E
Installed at <file:/usr/local/e>
We seem to be headless

Welcome to E 0.8.9.1
# //<ctrl-D>

$ e
? 2 + 3
# value: 5

? #<Ctrl-D>

Above, the "We seem to be headless" is printed out is you run the installer from a character terminal (or its moral equivalent) rather than an X terminal. If you install from an X terminal, the welcome message should be in the form of a swing monologue box with an Ok button.

You should now proceed to the E Tutorial.