Install

The current hledger release is 1.25. (Release notes)

Here are lots of ways to install hledger - choose one that suits your needs. Binary packages install quickly but are not always up to date (look for green badges). Building from source is slower and requires at least 4G of ram.

After installing, please check your PATH, locale, and installation, and share any feedback so we can make this process smoother!

Binary packages

Mac

	hledger-macos.zip
	brew install hledger

Windows

	hledger-windows.zip
	choco install hledger -y

GNU/Linux

	hledger-linux-x64.zip
	sudo layman -a haskell && sudo emerge hledger hledger-ui hledger-web
	pacman -Sy hledger hledger-ui hledger-web
	sudo apk add hledger hledger-ui hledger-web After enabling the testing repository
	xbps-install -S hledger hledger-ui hledger-web
more..	sudo dnf install hledger
more..	sudo apt install hledger hledger-ui hledger-web
more..	sudo apt install hledger hledger-ui hledger-web

Raspberry Pi

	hledger-linux-arm32v7.zip
	hledger-aarch64-manjaro.gz hledger-armhf32-debian.gz Note: unaudited third party binaries

BSD

	pkg_add hledger
	pkg_add hledger
	pkg install hs-hledger hs-hledger-ui hs-hledger-web

Other

more..	docker pull dastapov/hledger
	nix-env -f https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/archive/e1225076.tar.gz -iA hledger_1_24_1 hledger-ui_1_24_1 hledger-web_1_24_1 Nix binaries may not yet be fully cached for your platform, try with --dry-run to estimate how much building will be required. On Linux, note #1030, #1033.
	HLedger Web app

Preview releases

https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/releases Previews of the next major release, for testers & early adopters.

Building the current release

You can build hledger from its source code on any machine with GHC and sufficient RAM (4G recommended) and disk space (up to 2G for a first build). Including all dependencies, this could take anywhere from a minute to an hour.

With hledger-install

This is a good choice if you are new to Haskell and its build tools. On any machine with bash (and possibly make, gcc...): download and run the hledger-install.sh script to build the current release of the hledger tools, plus some add-ons, in a relatively reliable way. It will use either stack or cabal if you have them, or will install stack in ~/.local/bin if needed, and it installs the hledger tools in ~/.local/bin or ~/.cabal/bin respectively.

With stack

If you have stack, you can run it yourself to install the main hledger tools in ~/.local/bin:

Your stack --version should be modern (at least 2.7) for best results. (You can usually upgrade stack quickly with stack upgrade.) On Windows, prefer the 64-bit version of stack, and omit hledger-ui from this command (unless you are in WSL).

With cabal

If you have GHC and cabal, you can run cabal yourself to install the main hledger tools in ~/.cabal/bin:

Your cabal --version should be modern (at least 3.2) for best results. On Windows, omit hledger-ui from this command (unless you are in WSL).

With nix

If you have nix, you can use nix-env to build hledger from source (but we try to provide a nix command that installs already-cached binaries, see above).

C libraries required

On some unix systems, certain required C libraries may not be installed. So if you see errors like "cannot find -ltinfo" when building hledger, install them with a command like the below and try again:

(Please send updates for this list.)

UTF-8 locale required

On unix systems, when building hledger the LANG environment variable must be set to a UTF-8-aware locale. See Check your locale.

Other build tips

• You can use less resources by omitting hledger-ui and hledger-web from the commands above.

• On machines with less than 4G of RAM, the build may use swap space and take a very long time (overnight), or it may die. Try adding -j1 to the stack/cabal install command, and retry a few times, or ask for help.

• It's ok to kill a build and rerun the command later; you won't lose progress.

• You can add --dry-run to the stack/cabal/nix install commands to see how much building remains.

• If you have previously installed the hledger tools, they will usually be overwritten by the new version. If you have them installed in multiple places in your PATH, you may see a warning, reminding you to remove or rename the old executables.

• Here are some known platform-specific build issues and workarounds:

  mac m1: building with ghc 9+ requires extra include dir
  windows: hledger-ui is not available
  windows: cross-environment non-ascii display issues
  arch: haskell build advice from Arch wiki
  openbsd 6: exec: permission denied
  openbsd: stack install tips
  nix: nix install on linux can fail with “cloning builder process: Operation not permitted”
  nix: on Linux, nix-installed hledger won’t handle non-ascii data
  

Building the development version

If you want the very latest improvements, our master branch on github is suitable for daily use. Get the source with git:

and build and install executables to ~/.local/bin with stack:

or to ~/.cabal/bin with cabal:

or you can build in a Docker container which includes the necessary tools and dependencies:

(This will build the image tagged hledger with just the latest binaries inside. If you want to keep all the build artifacts and use the resulting image for hledger development, run ./build-dev.sh instead.)

Pre-flight checks

Check your PATH

After building/installing, you may see a message about where the executables were installed. Eg:

• with stack: $HOME/.local/bin (on Windows, %APPDATA%\local\bin)
• with cabal: $HOME/.cabal/bin (on Windows, %APPDATA%\cabal\bin)
• with nix: $HOME/.nix-profile/bin

Make sure that this install directory is included in your shell's $PATH (preferably near the start, to preempt any old hledger binaries you might have lying around), so that you can run the hledger tools easily. How to configure this depends on your platform and shell. If you are using bash, this will show it:

and here's a way to add the stack and cabal install dirs permanently , if you are a bash user:

Here's how to set environment variables on Windows.

Check your locale

On unix systems, when running hledger (and other GHC-compiled programs, like GHC, cabal & stack), the LANG environment variable must be set to a UTF-8-aware locale to avoid errors like "invalid byte sequence" or "mkTextEncoding: invalid argument" when processing non-ascii text.

Check that LANG's value mentions UTF-8, and if not, change it:

$ echo $LANG
C
$ export LANG=C.UTF-8    # or en_US.UTF-8, fr_FR.utf8, etc.
$ echo $LANG
C.UTF-8

In some cases the locale may need to be installed with your system package manager first. See hledger: Troubleshooting for more help.

Check your installation

After a successful installation, you should be able to run the hledger tools and see the expected versions (the ones you just installed, and not any older versions that may exist somewhere else in your PATH). Eg:

And you could see the unit tests pass (just for fun):

Or if you have checked out the hledger source, also the functional tests:

Nicely done! Now check the Quick Start for next steps, or come to the #hledger chat where we'll gladly share tips or receive your feedback.