Installation · Coursier

These instructions will install the coursier CLI cs itself, as well as a typical Scala development environment. By default, they will install the following applications:

cs itself, to further manage your Scala environment
scala-cli, a convenient tool to compile / run / package Scala code
scala, the Scala REPL
scalac, the Scala compiler
sbt and sbtn, the sbt build toold
ammonite, an enhanced REPL for Scala
scalafmt, the Scala code formatter

They will also install a JVM if none is found on the system.

If you want more control over what gets installed and how, please check out the Command-line options section.

After the setup, you can start using Scala, or install more applications with the install command.

Native launcher

Linux

On Linux, download the coursier installer with

# On x86-64 (aka AMD64)
$ curl -fL "https://github.com/coursier/launchers/raw/master/cs-x86_64-pc-linux.gz" | gzip -d > cs
# On ARM64
$ curl -fL "https://github.com/VirtusLab/coursier-m1/releases/latest/download/cs-aarch64-pc-linux.gz" | gzip -d > cs

Then, run it with

$ chmod +x cs
$ ./cs setup

Other flavors of native Linux launchers are available, see below.

macOS

On macOS, download and run the coursier installer with

# On Apple Silicon (M1, M2, ...):
$ curl -fL https://github.com/VirtusLab/coursier-m1/releases/latest/download/cs-aarch64-apple-darwin.gz | gzip -d > cs
# Otherwise:
$ curl -fL https://github.com/coursier/launchers/raw/master/cs-x86_64-apple-darwin.gz | gzip -d > cs
$ chmod +x cs
$ ./cs setup

macOS - brew based installation

Alternatively, the coursier launcher can be installed via homebrew with

$ brew install coursier/formulas/coursier
$ cs setup

Windows

On Windows, download and execute the Windows installer.

If you prefer a command line-based install, or if you would like to customize the setup options, use:

# PowerShell
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://github.com/coursier/launchers/raw/master/cs-x86_64-pc-win32.zip" -OutFile "cs-x86_64-pc-win32.zip"
Expand-Archive -Path "cs-x86_64-pc-win32.zip"
Rename-Item -Path "cs-x86_64-pc-win32.exe" -NewName "cs.exe"
Remove-Item -Path "cs-x86_64-pc-win32.zip"
.\cs --help

:: CMD
curl -fLo cs-x86_64-pc-win32.zip https://github.com/coursier/launchers/raw/master/cs-x86_64-pc-win32.zip
tar -xf cs-x86_64-pc-win32.zip
move cs-x86_64-pc-win32.exe cs.exe
.\cs --help

Check your setup

Check your setup with

$ scala -version
Scala code runner version 2.13.7 -- Copyright 2002-2021, LAMP/EPFL and Lightbend, Inc.

If that does not work, you may need to log out and log back in (or reboot) in order for the changes to take effect.

JAR-based launcher

In case you run into any issue with the native launcher, a JAR-based launcher is available.

The commands below install the JAR-based launcher as coursier, which can be substituted to cs in the various examples on this website.

Linux / macOS

Download and run the launcher with

$ curl -fLo coursier https://github.com/coursier/launchers/raw/master/coursier &&
    chmod +x coursier &&
    ./coursier

Note that the JAR-based launcher requires Java 8 or later to run. That is, a command like java -version should print a version >= 8.

The JAR-based launcher weights only about 25 kB and can be easily embedded as is in other projects. It downloads the artifacts required to launch coursier on the first run.

Alternatively, on macOS, the JAR-based launcher can be installed via homebrew with

$ brew install coursier/formulas/coursier
$ coursier

Windows

Install and run the JAR-based coursier launcher from the current directory at the Windows prompt, with

# CMD
> bitsadmin /transfer downloadCoursierCli https://github.com/coursier/launchers/raw/master/coursier "%cd%\coursier"
> bitsadmin /transfer downloadCoursierBat https://github.com/coursier/launchers/raw/master/coursier.bat "%cd%\coursier.bat"

# PowerShell
> Start-BitsTransfer -Source https://github.com/coursier/launchers/raw/master/coursier -Destination coursier
> Start-BitsTransfer -Source https://github.com/coursier/launchers/raw/master/coursier.bat -Destination coursier.bat

You can then run coursier from the same directory, like

> coursier resolve io.circe:circe-core_2.12:0.10.0

Arch Linux

Install it from AUR,

$ pacaur -S coursier

FreeBSD

Install it via pkg from the Ports Collection,

$ pkg install coursier

zsh completions

If you use ZSH, simple tab-completions are available by writing the coursier completion data into your completions directory. You can install the completions with:

mkdir -p ~/.zsh/completion

echo '#compdef _cs cs

function _cs {
  eval "$(cs complete zsh-v1 $CURRENT $words[@])"
}' > ~/.zsh/completion/_cs

echo 'fpath=(~/.zsh/completion $fpath)' >> ~/.zshrc
echo 'autoload -Uz compinit ; compinit' >> ~/.zshrc

Launcher URLs

Latest launchers

OS	URL
Linux	https://github.com/coursier/launchers/raw/master/cs-x86_64-pc-linux.gz
macOS	https://github.com/coursier/launchers/raw/master/cs-x86_64-apple-darwin.gz
Windows	https://github.com/coursier/launchers/raw/master/cs-x86_64-pc-win32.zip
Linux (ARM64)	https://github.com/coursier/launchers/raw/master/cs-aarch64-pc-linux.gz
Any (needs JVM)	https://github.com/coursier/coursier/raw/gh-pages/coursier (gh-pages branch of coursier repository rather than launchers repository)
Any (needs JVM)	https://github.com/coursier/launchers/raw/master/coursier (same launcher as above)

Note that most launchers used to be available at short git.io URLs, and at long URLs without compression, that is not ending in .gz nor .zip.

These URLs are not updated anymore, and point at former coursier versions, as using compressed launchers allows to save space and bandwidth (for the long URLs), and as git.io is about to be deprecated.

Specific versions

To download specific versions of the launcher, download them from GitHub release assets:

OS	URL	Since version
Linux	https://github.com/coursier/coursier/releases/download/v2.1.4/cs-x86_64-pc-linux.gz	`2.0.16-158-gbdc8669f9`
macOS	https://github.com/coursier/coursier/releases/download/v2.1.4/cs-x86_64-apple-darwin.gz	`2.0.16-158-gbdc8669f9`
Windows	https://github.com/coursier/coursier/releases/download/v2.1.4/cs-x86_64-pc-win32.exe	`2.0.16-158-gbdc8669f9`
Linux (ARM64)	https://github.com/coursier/coursier/releases/download/v2.1.4/cs-aarch64-pc-linux.gz	`2.0.16-158-gbdc8669f9`
Any (needs JVM)	https://github.com/coursier/coursier/releases/download/v2.1.4/coursier	`1.1.0-M9`

Former URLs, for information:

OS	URL	Since version	Up to version
Linux	https://github.com/coursier/coursier/releases/download/v2.1.4/cs-x86_64-pc-linux	`2.0.0-RC3-1`	`2.0.16`
macOS	https://github.com/coursier/coursier/releases/download/v2.1.4/cs-x86_64-apple-darwin	`2.0.0-RC3-1`	`2.0.16`
Windows	https://github.com/coursier/coursier/releases/download/v2.1.4/cs-x86_64-pc-win32.exe	`2.0.0-RC6`	`2.0.16`
Any (needs JVM)	https://github.com/coursier/coursier/raw/v1.1.0-M9/coursier		`1.1.0-M9`

Command-line options

Interactive mode

Launched without options, setup checks that a JVM and the standard Scala CLI tools are installed on your system, and updates your profile files (Linux / macOS) or user environment variables (Windows).

It asks you to confirm prior to performing any of these actions.

To answer yes to all these questions beforehand, pass --yes or -y to setup:

$ cs setup --yes

Non-interactive mode

If you prefer the setup command not to update your profile files (~/.profile and the like), pass --env to it, and call eval (from bash or zsh) on its output:

$ eval "$(cs setup --env)"

This updates JAVA_HOME and PATH for the duration of the current session.

Pass it a JVM id and a list of applications to

use that JVM in the current session, and
ensure some applications are installed, like

$ eval "$(cs setup --env --jvm 11 --apps sbt-launcher,ammonite)"
$ sbt
…
$ amm
…
$ java -version
openjdk version "11.0.6" 2020-01-14
OpenJDK Runtime Environment AdoptOpenJDK (build 11.0.6+10)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM AdoptOpenJDK (build 11.0.6+10, mixed mode)

The setup command currently doesn't offer a way to revert the changes it made to the environment variables of the current session. It's mostly made to easily setup CI environments, rather than switch JVMs. If you're interested in trying / switching JVM, see the --env and --disable options of the java command.

Overriding defaults

JVM

The JVM installed if none is found on your system is the same as the java command, the latest AdoptOpenJDK 8 as of writing this.

Pass --jvm to ignore the already installed jvm and install a custom one:

$ cs setup --jvm 11

JVM directory

JVMs are extracted in the JVM cache directory by default.

Pass a custom directory to extract JVM under with --jvm-dir:

$ eval "$(cs setup --jvm 11 --jvm-dir test-jvm)"
…
$ echo "$JAVA_HOME"
…/test-jvm/adopt@1.11.0-6

Applications

The setup command installs a number of standard Scala CLI applications by default. Pass a custom list of applications to install instead with --apps.

$ cs setup --apps sbt-launcher,ammonite

--apps can be specified multiple times, and expects a ,-separared list of applications.

See the documentation of the install command for more details about where these applications are defined, how to add your own, etc.

Application directory

Applications are installed in the installation directory of coursier by default.

Pass a custom directory to install applications in with --install-dir:

$ eval "$(cs setup --apps sbt-launcher,ammonite --install-dir tmp-install)"
…
$ tmp-install/sbt
…
$ tmp-install/amm
…

Profile files directory

Pass a custom directory that contains .profile / .bash_profile / .zprofile files with:

$ cs setup --user-home test-home
…
$ cat test-home/.profile

# >>> coursier install directory >>>
export PATH="$PATH:/Users/alex/Library/Application Support/Coursier/bin"
# <<< coursier install directory <<<

How it sets environment variables globally

Linux / macOS

The setup command updates the following files:

~/.profile (created if needed),
~/.zprofile if zsh is the current shell (created if needed, respects ZDOTDIR),
~/.bash_profile (only if it exists).

For example, if ~/.bash_profile doesn't exist and you're using zsh, both ~/.profile and ~/.zprofile will be updated (and created if needed).

The sections the setup command adds to your profile files are clearly delimited, like

# >>> coursier install directory >>>
export PATH="$PATH:/Users/alex/Library/Application Support/Coursier/bin"
# <<< coursier install directory <<<

Windows

On Windows, the setup command updates the User environment variables.

Other native Linux launchers

Flavors of the native Linux launchers other than the default one are available. Note that these are only built for the x86-64 architecture for now (no ARM64).

Static launchers

These can run in environments where glibc is not available, such as Alpine docker images. These can be downloaded from GitHub release assets, like the standard launchers. Their file names end with linux-static.

$ curl -fL "https://github.com/coursier/launchers/raw/master/cs-x86_64-pc-linux-static.gz" | gzip -d > cs

Mostly static launchers

These require glibc and libz, but do not need the C++ standard library. They are meant to be used from so called "distroless" Docker images. These can be downloaded from GitHub release assets, like the standard launchers. Their file names end with linux-mostly-static.

$ curl -fL "https://github.com/coursier/launchers/raw/master/cs-x86_64-pc-linux-mostly-static.gz" | gzip -d > cs

Container launchers

These are temporary. These are just like the standard launchers, but built without GraalVM container support (using the -H:-UseContainerSupport option at build time). These are meant to workaround issues with the GraalVM container support, if ever you run into them. These can be downloaded from GitHub release assets, like the standard launchers. Their file names end with linux-container.

$ curl -fL "https://github.com/coursier/launchers/raw/master/cs-x86_64-pc-linux-container.gz" | gzip -d > cs