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Preparation

Prerequisites

This tutorial assumes that users are running Ubuntu/Debian, macOS or Windows 10. Windows 10 users may either install the Windows Subsystem for Linux and follow the instructions given below for Ubuntu/Debian, or alternatively, configure Chocolatey and install the software packages mentioned via choco install. However, our instructions will not detail how detectEr is installed and used on Windows systems.

Please install the software package management system available for your particular operating system before proceeding with the rest of the guide.

Operating System Package Manager Installation
Ubuntu/Debian APT Not required, comes pre-bundled
macOS Homebrew Follow the Homebrew guide for installation
Windows 10 Chocolatey Follow the Chocolatey guide for installation

Installing Erlang

Erlang can be installed on multiple platforms by compiling it from source or downloading one of the pre-compiled distributions hosted on erlang-solutions.com. We however follow the simpler route and install Erlang using the package managers mentioned above.

On Ubuntu and Debian, Erlang can be installed using APT.

  1. Add the Erlang Solutions repository:

    wget https://packages.erlang-solutions.com/erlang-solutions_2.0_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i erlang-solutions_2.0_all.deb

  2. Refresh the package manager repository cache: sudo apt update.

  3. Install the entire Erlang/OTP suite only: sudo apt install erlang.

macOS users can install the entire Erlang/OTP suite using Homebrew by running: brew install erlang.

Windows 10 users not using WSL can install the entire Erlang/OTP suite using Chocolatey by running: choco install erlang.

Refer to the Erlang Solutions guide for installing Erlang/OTP on other operating systems.

Quick check

Confirm that Erlang/OTP distribution has been successfully installed and that the system PATH variable is properly configured by typing erl --version.

Installing Elixir

Elixir runs on the Erlang virtual machine and uses the same OTP libraries. We already installed the Erlang ecosystem, and need only install the Elixir language libraries.

On Ubuntu and Debian, Elixir can be installed via APT using: sudo apt-get install elixir.

macOS users can install Elixir using Homebrew by running: brew install elixir.

Windows 10 users not using WSL can install Elixir using Chocolatey by running: choco install elixir.

Refer to the Elixir Lang guide for installing Elixir on other operating systems.

Quick check

Confirm that Elixir has been successfully installed and that the system PATH variable is properly configured by typing elixir --version.

Installing Python

We also make use of Python 3, that can be installed as explained below.

Most distributions of Ubuntu and Debian come with Python pre-installed. Check the version of Python available on your operating system by executing python --version.

If the reported version is older than 3.7.x or Python is not installed, follow these steps.

  1. Refresh the package manager repository cache (if not already done): sudo apt update.

  2. Install Python 3: sudo apt install python3.9.

  3. Install the Python package manager PIP: sudo apt install python3-pip.

  4. Also install the core development support tools: sudo apt install -y build-essential libssl-dev libffi-dev python3-dev.

macOS comes pre-installed with Python 2.7, which is not the version we use in this tutorial.

Install Python 3 via Homebrew by typing: brew install python3. The Python package manager PIP for Python 3 is bundled in the recent versions of Python.

Windows 10 users not using WSL can install Python 3 via Chocolatey by typing: choco install python. The Python package manager PIP for Python 3 is bundled in the recent versions of Python.

Refer to the Real Python guide for installing Python 3 on other operating systems.

Quick check

Confirm that Python 3 has been successfully installed and that the system PATH variable is properly configured by typing python3 --version. Also check that PIP for Python 3 has been installed, pip3 --version.

Installing the virtual environment management tool

Virtualenv is a tool used to create isolated Python environments. The environment it creates has its own installation directory, and does not share libraries with other Virtualenv environments. Virtualenv can be installed via PIP: pip3 install virtualenv.

Configuring Visual Studio Code

Any plain text editor can be used, but for this tutorial we opt for Visual Studio Code that can be downloaded from https://code.visualstudio.com. It can also be installed using the respective operating system package manager.

On Ubuntu and Debian, VS Code can be installed using APT.

  1. Install APT transport for downloading packages via HTTPS: sudo apt install apt-transport-https to check

  2. Import the Microsoft GPG key: 

    wget -q https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

  3. Add the VS Code repository by typing: 

    sudo add-apt-repository "deb [arch=amd64] https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable main"

  4. Refresh the package manager repository cache: sudo apt update.

  5. Install VS Code: sudo apt install code.

macOS users can install VS Code using Homebrew by running: brew install --cask visual-studio-code.

Windows 10 users not using WSL can install VS Code using Chocolatey by running: choco install vscode.

Refer to the Visual Studio Code guide for installing it on other operating systems.

Adding extensions

To enable syntax highlighting and language support for the languages used in this tutorial, VS Code can be configured with these extensions.

Versions

These distribution versions are used in this tutorial. Your installed versions need not exactly match, but we document these in case of any problems you might face when working through the tutorial later on.

Name Version
Erlang/OTP 23.3.2
Elixir 1.11.4
Python 3.9.4
PIP 21.0.1
VS Code 1.56.0

Now that your system is set up, we can proceed to download and compile detectEr.