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# Installing Mercurial from source

(sec-srcinstall-unixlike)=

## On a Unix-like system

If you are using a Unix-like system that has a sufficiently recent version of
Python (2.6 or newer) available, it is easy to install Mercurial from source.

1. Download a recent source tarball from
   <https://www.mercurial-scm.org/downloads>.

2. Unpack the tarball:

```sh
gzip -dc mercurial-MYVERSION.tar.gz | tar xf -
```

3. Go into the source directory and run the installer script. This will build
   Mercurial and install it in your home d directory.

```sh
cd mercurial-MYVERSION
python setup.py install --force --home=$HOME
```

Once the install finishes, Mercurial will be in the `bin` subdirectory of your
home directory. Don't forget to make sure that this directory is present in your
shell's search path.

You will probably need to set the PYTHONPATH environment variable so that the
Mercurial executable can find the rest of the Mercurial packages. For example, on
my laptop, I have set it to `/home/bos/lib/python`. The exact path that you will
need to use depends on how Python was built for your system, but should be easy to
figure out. If you're uncertain, look through the output of the installer script
above, and see where the contents of the `mercurial` directory were installed to.

## On Windows

Building and installing Mercurial on Windows requires a variety of tools, a fair
amount of technical knowledge, and considerable patience. I very much *do not
recommend* this route if you are a “casual user”. Unless you intend to hack on
Mercurial, I strongly suggest that you use a binary package instead.

If you are intent on building Mercurial from source on Windows, follow the
directions on the Mercurial wiki at
<https://www.mercurial-scm.org/wiki/WindowsInstall>, and expect the process to
involve a lot of fiddly work.