Clozure CL Documentation

2.2. Obtaining Clozure CL

There two main ways to obtain Clozure CL. For Mac OS X, there are disk images that can be used to install Clozure CL in the usual Macintosh way. For other OSes, Subversion is the best way to obtain Clozure CL. Mac OS X users can also use Subversion if they prefer. Tarballs are available for those who prefer them, but if you have Subversion installed, it is simpler and more flexible to use Subversion than tarballs.

There are three popular ways to use Clozure CL: as a stand-alone double-clickable application (Mac OS X only), as a command-line application, or with Emacs and SLIME. The following sections describe these options.

2.2.1. The Mac Way

If you are using Mac OS X then you can install and use Clozure CL in the usual Macintosh way. Download and mount a disk image, then drag the ccl folder to the Applications folder or wherever you wish. After that you can double-click the Clozure CL application found inside the ccl directory. The disk images are available at ftp://clozure.com/pub/release/1.4/

So that Clozure CL can locate its source code, and for other reasons explained in Section 4.6.2, “Predefined Logical Hosts”, you keep the Clozure CL application in the ccl directory. If you use a shell, you can set the value of the CCL_DEFAULT_DIRECTORY environment variable to explicitly indicate the location of the ccl directory. If you choose to do that, then the ccl directory and the Clozure CL application can each be in any location you find convenient.

2.2.2. Getting Clozure CL with Subversion

It is very easy to download, install, and build Clozure CL using Subversion. This is the preferred way to get either the latest, or a specific version of Clozure CL, unless you prefer the Mac Way. Subversion is a source code control system that is in wide use. Many OSes come with Subversion pre-installed. A complete, buildable and runnable set of Clozure CL sources and binaries can be retrieved with a single Subversion command.

Day-to-day development of Clozure CL takes place in an area of the Subversion repository known as the trunk. At most times, the trunk is perfectly usable, but occasionally it can be unstable or totally broken. If you wish to live on the bleeding edge, the following command will fetch a copy of the trunk for Darwin x86 (both 32- and 64-bit versions):

          
svn co http://svn.clozure.com/publicsvn/openmcl/trunk/darwinx86/ccl

To get a trunk Clozure CL for another platform, replace "darwinx86" with one of the following names (all versions include both 32- and 64-bit binaries):

darwinx86
linuxx86
freebsdx86
solarisx86
windows
linuxppc
darwinppc

Release versions of Clozure CL are intended to be stable. While bugs will be fixed in the release branches, enhancements and new features will go into the trunk. To get the 1.4 release of Clozure CL type:

          
svn co http://svn.clozure.com/publicsvn/openmcl/release/1.4/darwinx86/ccl

The above command will fetch the complete sources and binaries for the Darwin x86 build of Clozure CL. To get a Clozure CL for another platform, replace "darwinx86" with one of the following names (all versions include both 32- and 64-bit binaries):

darwinx86
linuxx86
freebsdx86
solarisx86
windows
linuxppc
darwinppc

These distributions contain complete sources and binaries. They use Subversion's "externals" features to share common sources; the majority of source code is the same across all versions.

Once the checkout is complete you can build Clozure CL by running the lisp kernel and executing the rebuild-ccl function. For example:

          
joe:ccl> ./dx86cl64
Welcome to Clozure Common Lisp Version 1.2  (DarwinX8664)!
? (rebuild-ccl :full t)

<lots of compilation output>

  ? (quit)
  joe:ccl>

If you don't have a C compiler toolchain installed, rebuild-ccl will not work. Please refer to Chapter 3, Building Clozure CL from its Source Code for addtional details.

2.2.2.1. Checking Subversion Installation

If svn co doesn't work, then make sure that Subversion is installed on your system. Bring up a command line shell and type:

          
shell> svn

If Subversion is installed, you will see something like:

          
Type 'svn help' for usage

If Subversion is not installed, you will see something like:

          
-bash: svn: command not found

If Subversion is not installed, you'll need to figure out how to install it on your OS. You can find information about obtaining and installing Subversion at the Subversion Packages page.

2.2.3. Tarballs

Tarballs are available at ftp://clozure.com/pub/release/1.4/. Download and extract one on your local disk. Then edit the Clozure CL shell script to set the value of CCL_DEFAULT_DIRECTORY and start up the appropriate Clozure CL kernel. See Section 2.3.1, “The ccl Shell Script” for more information about the Clozure CL shell scripts.