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Overview

For people who simply want to install Lazarus and start using it for programming, the easiest approach is to download and install a recent, reasonably stable binary release (such as a Linux ".rpm" package, a Windows ".exe" installer, or a Mac OS X ".dmg" package). You can read the sections under Linux or Windows entitled "fpc binaries" or the first paragraphs in the sections on installing Lazarus in Linux or Windows; most of the remaining information can be safely ignored.

For those who want to participate in the development of the compiler or the IDE, or for those who want the most up-to-date tools, an installation from source files is necessary, and much of the rest of this information is relevant.

Lazarus provides two main parts:

LCL - the Lazarus Component Library
IDE - the RAD tool

These in turn are dependent on:

FPC - the Free Pascal compiler
FCL - the Free Pascal Component library, containing most of the non-graphic components used by Lazarus

Lazarus System Requirements

Free Pascal compiler, packages, and sources. (*important*: of the same version/date)
A supported widget tool-kit
Win32

The native Win32 API can be used, or Qt widgetset.

Linux/xxxBSD

GTK+ 2.x or Qt : Most Linux distributions and *BSDs already install the GTK+ 2.x libraries. You can also find them at http://www.gtk.org.
Qt is also supported with all distributions (auto installed if you prefer KDE).

Mac OS X

You need the Apple developer tools. See Installing under Mac OS X below. Qt can be used too.

The FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions file is available at http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org . Some of the questions can be found in the local file 'FAQ'.

Qt widget set is supported on Linux 32/64,Win32/64,Mac OS X, Haiku and embedded linux (qtopia) platforms.
More about installation http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php/Qt_Interface

The following sections describe how to get Free Pascal and how to install Lazarus properly.

Installing The Free Pascal Compiler

There is an extensive discussion of how to install and build Free Pascal compilers available here http://www.stack.nl/~marcov/buildfaq.pdf - it may be a little too detailed for some users, but is very comprehensive.

Lazarus 0.9.30.2 requires fpc (Free Pascal) version 2.4.4 or higher and it requires both the compiled fpc libs (binaries) and the fpc sources and of the same version.

Installing Free Pascal under Linux

FPC Binaries

The latest release of Free Pascal, version 2.4.4, can be obtained from the Free Pascal website (http://www.freepascal.org/download.var, then choose a mirror) or from SourceForge (http://sourceforge.net/projects/lazarus).

At the Lazarus downloads section (http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org ) you can get the RPM or DEB of the Free Pascal compiler (compiler / Linux) and its packages. If you don't have an RPM-based or debian-based distribution, you can download and install the tarballs from http://www.freepascal.org. If you want to compile the binaries for yourself, see the BSD section.

Instructions:

WARNING: if you're not using RPMs or debian packages (even if you plan to use alien) it's best to get latest stable fpc (2.4.4 as of now) and install Lazarus from source.

Start Linux and login as root.

Download lastest files from http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=89339. As example:

fpc-2.4.4-0.laz.i686.rpm
fpc-src-2.4.4-0.laz.i686.rpm
lazarus-0.9.30.2-0.laz.i686.rpm

and install them with:

rpm -Uvh fpc-2.4.4-0.laz.i686.rpm
rpm -Uvh fpc-src-2.4.4-0.laz.i686.rpm
rpm -Uvh lazarus-0.9.30.2-0.laz.i686.rpm

Debian users are recommended to use the deb packages, but may use either alien (warning, it doesn't generate fpc.cfg) or the tarball install.

FPC Sources

FPC source files are stored in a Subversion (SVN) repository that keeps track of all changes of the source tree.

Download Daily Source Snapshot of Development Tree

You can download today's development sources in the form of a packed snapshot from the SVN source repository: these snapshots are updated on a daily basis, and reflect the state of the source repository. They are not tested, might not work or even crash your system. The files are kept at the site which has the SVN archive. The version of FPC used can vary. Location: [1]

Up to date source repository using SVN

As an alternative to the daily zip files of the SVN sources, the SVN repository has been made accessible for everyone, with read-only access. This means that you can directly access the code, and you will have really the last-minute sources available. It is also a method which requires less bandwidth once you have done the first download (checkout in SVN lingo).

Getting the source

How to do this? First, you need to have an SVN client installed. Use your package manager, install a tool like TortoiseSVN on Windows, or look at [2] for more details.

Using command line SVN: change directory (cd) to the parent directory of your development area, eg To retrieve the full source repository for the first time into an fpc subdirectory under your home directory, type <bash> cd ~ svn checkout http://svn.freepascal.org/svn/fpc/trunk fpc </bash>

To update the sources which were downloaded (checked out) above <bash> cd ~ svn update fpc </bash>

Getting a separate branch

If the current trunk version is in a state of rapid change and unsuitable for much use unless you want to work on the compiler itself, you can stay on a version that is updated with fixes. To do this, you have to find out a stable branch that you want to track instead of the default trunk development version. The example below shows how you can track the fixes_2_6 version; of course replace as needed depending on what branches you want to track.

This example keeps the fixes in another directory under your home directory - it wouldn't make sense to put two versions of the source in one directory... <bash> cd ~ svn checkout http://svn.freepascal.org/svn/fpc/branches/fixes_2_6 fpc_fixes_2_6 </bash> Update as usual: <bash> cd ~ svn update fpc_fixes_2_6 </bash>

Documentation

The documentation sources are in a separate repository called fpcdocs, so the command to get them is <bash> cd ~ svn checkout http://svn.freepascal.org/svn/fpcdocs/trunk fpcdocs </bash>

If you want to learn more about subversion, read this excellent Subversion book which is also available online in different formats for free.

For more information, see the Free Pascal website

Installing Free Pascal under Windows

FPC Binaries for Windows

By far the easiest way to get a working installation of Free Pascal is to download the current binary Windows release of Lazarus from the SourceForge repository [3] - the release contains the current versions of the Free Pascal Compiler and the Free Pascal libraries as well as the Lazarus IDE.

If you want to install from sources, read on!

You can get the installer zip for fpc 2.4.4 at Free Pascal's download section http://www.freepascal.org/download.var, then choose a mirror). Installing from the sources -- see the next section to know how to get them -- is not for novices, since you need a starting compiler as well.

FPC Sources for Windows

<<<< See section above under FPC Sources for Linux, where the use of SVN is described >>>>

The easiest way to get the Free Pascal sources is via SVN; see the next section for more on that. You can also download the package as a whole -- see http://www.freepascal.org/develop.var for the daily snapshot of the 2.5.x release tree.

Windows FPC Sources via SVN

You will need to have a SVN client such as TortoiseSVN installed in order to perform the steps below. The exact commands vary between SVN clients; the ones given below are to be used under SVN home's client, which is available for download here.

First create a directory in which you'd like to put the sources. Any normal user can do this. Create a directory for fpc (e.g. C:\Source), then do the following at the command prompt:

 C:\Source> svn co http://svn.freepascal.org/svn/fpc/trunk fpc

Hint: To download/update the latest changes you can simply do

 C:\> cd Source\FPC
 C:\Source\FPC> svn up

See: http://www.freepascal.org/down/i386/win32.var . Download FPC as one big file, unzip it and run the install.exe.

Extending your PATH variable to the fpc directory:

Win98: Edit autoexec.bat and add the line: PATH=%PATH%;C:\pp\bin\bin\win32
WinXP/2k: My Computer (Right Click) -> Properties -> Advanced (Page) -> Environment Variables -> System Variables -> Edit "PATH", Add "C:\pp\bin\bin\win32" there.

Then restart windows.

After you have FPC binaries installed you can build FPC source from subversion.

Hints:

Windows (7+) requires that an elevated user status command prompt be used. From the start menu for "Command Prompt" right click and select "Run as Administrator".
YOUR-PREFIX is totally dependent on where you installed FPC to. At the time of this writing, the binaries are instructed to use a default location of "C:\FPC" and they were placed in "C:\FPC\2.4.4". Under Linux, the make install scripts were adjusted to create a new sub-folder IF the FPC version changed since last build. The Windows scripts do not. So if you know the sub-folder name ie. 2.5.1 you can specify that. However, since versions change frequently, it is recommended that you just select and maintain a single PREFIX with no respect for FPC versions. A good prefix is C:\FPC but you must also make sure that the C:\FPC\bin\i386-win32\ folder is added to your path environment variable (see above on how to set your path and change it from the binary version to the newly compiled one).

Instructions:

In command Prompt navigate to the localized FPC source. ie.) type "cd c:\Developer\FPC"
To build FPC type "make all"
To overwrite existing FPC type "make install PREFIX=YOUR-PREFIX"
To install source type "make install sourceinstall PREFIX=YOUR-PREFIX"

Compiling/installing FPC and Lazarus from Sources of SVN (Win32)

--Marcos Douglas 14:35, 4 October 2010 (CEST)

STEP #1: Create directories and get the sources

Create the following directories:

 c:\freepascal\
 c:\freepascal\binutils\
 c:\freepascal\binutils\i386-win32\
 c:\freepascal\fpc\
 c:\freepascal\fpc\2.4.5\
 c:\freepascal\laz\

You will need a compiler to build a new compiler. Get the ppc386 (the compiler) in FTP (below) and unzip it in c:\freepascal\binutils\

 ftp://ftp.freepascal.org/pub/fpc/dist/2.4.4/bootstrap/i386-win32-ppc386.zip

After installing TortoiseSVN, download the sources from SVN using a URL for each directory, see:

 Dir: c:\freepascal\binutils\i386-win32\
 URL: http://svn.freepascal.org/svn/fpcbuild/branches/fixes_2_4/install/binw32

 Dir: c:\freepascal\fpc\2.4.5
 URL: http://svn.freepascal.org/svn/fpc/branches/fixes_2_4/

 Dir: c:\freepascal\laz
 URL: http://svn.freepascal.org/svn/lazarus/trunk

STEP #2: Create a BAT file to compile FPC

After everything is downloaded, we need a BAT file to compile the FPC sources. Create a new file c:\freepascal\makefpc.bat and copy/paste the following script:

 @echo on
 set myroot=c:\freepascal
 set myFPC=%myroot%\fpc\2.4.5
 set mybinutils=%myroot%\binutils
 set PATH=%mybinutils%\i386-win32;%myFPC%\bin\i386-win32;%PATH%
 cd %myFPC%
 rd /s /q  %myfpc%\examples
 make clean all install INSTALL_PREFIX=%myFPC% PP=%mybinutils%\ppc386.exe DATA2INC=%myFPC%\utils\data2inc.exe

STEP #3: Make and install FPC

At the prompt (cmd.exe), navigate to the directory c:\freepascal and execute the script we just wrote:

cd /d c:\freepascal
makefpc.bat

STEP #4: Create fpc.cfg file

Now we need to have a configuration file for FPC. This can be done with the fpcmkcfg tool in the fpc bin directory. Steps:

 1. Open a command line console
 2. cd /d C:\freepascal\fpc\2.4.5\bin\i386-win32
 3. fpcmkcfg -d basepath=C:\freepascal\fpc\2.4.5 -o .\fpc.cfg

(Note: earlier instructions had \bin\i386-win32 appended to the basepath. This is not needed since at least FPC 2.4.4.)

STEP #5: Create a BAT file to compile Lazarus

To compile Lazarus for the first time, create a new file c:\freepascal\makelaz.bat and copy/paste the following script:

 set myroot=c:\freepascal
 set myFPC=%myroot%\fpc\2.4.5
 set mybinutils=%myroot%\binutils
 set PATH=%mybinutils%\i386-win32;%myFPC%\bin\i386-win32;%PATH%
 cd %myroot%\laz
 make clean all OPT="-glw2"

Tip: You only need to use this BAT at the first time. Then you can just build Lazarus using the menu Tools menu> Build Lazarus.

STEP #6: Make Lazarus

At the prompt, navigate to the directory c:\freepascal and type: makelaz.bat

Done!

Installing Free Pascal under FreeBSD/auto

Latest FreeBSD ports collection has 2.6.0 stable version in ports/lang/fpc. But they are scattered over 91 (!) packages and the source can be obtained from /usr/ports/distfiles/freepascal.

This can be done as root.

[]# cd /usr/ports/lang/fpc && make install && make clean

Other possibility is to use portinstall.

[]# portinstall fpc

Once fpc is installed you can check if it's working by simply running

[]$ fpc

Installing Free Pascal under Linux/BSD manually

Effectively, you need

A file with all sources, or two (FPC and Lazarus)

1. e.g. for fpc ftp://ftp.freepascal.org/fpc/dist/Linux/separate/sources.tar preferably an export (no CVS/ dirs). The above file misses this. 2. Lazarus source snapshot.

a starting compiler, the latest release version (fpc 2.4.4) is the only version guaranteed to work.

FPC build:

1. (fetch) necessary files (FPC source, starting compiler) 2. (extract) Then de-tgz in work directory, 3. (build) enter work/fpc/ and run

 $MAKE all OPT='-gl'  PP=/path/to/startingcompiler-name-ppc386
(/path/to/ can be omitted when ppc386 is in the path)
($MAKE is make on linux and gmake on BSD)

4. (install) then, again in work/fpc, run

$MAKE install PP=compiler/ppc386 PREFIX=$THEPREFIX
(THEPREFIX= usually is /usr/local or just /usr, but e.g. on
NetBSD it is /usr/pkg for ports)
Create a symlink:
  ln -s $THEPREFIX/lib/fpc/2.4.4/ppc386 $THEPREFIX/bin/ppc386
Install sources
  $MAKE install sourceinstall PREFIX=$THEPREFIX
Create a symlink for default Lazarus source path:
 ln -sf $THEPREFIX/share/src/2.4.4/fpc /usr/share/fpcsrc

5. (configure) run

 $THEPREFIX/lib/fpc/2.4.4/samplecfg $THEPREFIX/lib/fpc/2.4.4 $ETCDIR

6. (optional, test), see if ppc386 -i gives output, else give a warning that user need to add $PREFIX/bin to his current path. Try to compiler a program with -viwn, and see if that gives errors. Notes:

If you need fpcmake package lists, you need to generate or supply them yourself, (in the port, or in an extra archive) either way, do a dummy install to /tmp/pack and determine the files installed with find . >ll

$THEPREFIX and $ETCDIR should be user configurable. Otherwise local installs aren't possible.

BSDHIER=1 on all make commands forces BSD hierarchy conventions.

Installing Free Pascal under Mac OS X

See Installing Lazarus on MacOS X

Installing Lazarus

Installing Lazarus under Linux

Ubuntu 11.04 or later

Note: the scripts are only compatible with 32-bit system

~~This is the easiest way to install Lazarus on Ubuntu.~~

~~Open a terminal and execute the follow commands:~~

~~wget -c http://silvioprog.com.br/download/install_fpc_lazarus_svn_version.tar.gz tar -vzxf install_fpc_lazarus_svn_version.tar.gz ./install_fpc_lazarus_svn_version.sh~~
~~You can also update, remove or customize Lazarus using the following scripts:~~
http://silvioprog.com.br/download/update_fpc_lazarus_svn_version.tar.gz http://silvioprog.com.br/download/remove_fpc_lazarus_svn_version.tar.gz http://silvioprog.com.br/download/custom_lazarus_svn_version_800x600.tar.gz http://silvioprog.com.br/download/custom_lazarus_svn_version_1024x768.tar.gz
~~Enjoy!~~

~~P.S.: There are reports that this script worked on earlier versions of Ubuntu-11.04.~~

Silvio Clecio

Ubuntu / Debian

The easiest way to get a current working installation of Lazarus is to download the .deb files for FreePascal and Lazarus from the SourceForge repository. Here is how: Getting Lazarus from our Ubuntu repository.

Note that installing from the default Ubuntu sources will not install the Free Pascal Source Libraries - use the method above.

Note: on Linux Ubuntu at least, the command to start Lazarus from a console is startlazarus. Else, if you installed it from a Debian package, you should have a Lazarus menu entry under Application/Programming. (Issue: there is an ambiguity with a program also called "lazarus" from a "tct" package available for Ubuntu).

Building debs the easy way

The easiest way to get a current working installation of Lazarus is to download build your own .deb packages by following the instructions at:

How to setup a FPC and Lazarus Ubuntu repository

Installing using rpms

The next easiest way is to the RPMs for FreePascal and Lazarus from the SourceForge repository.

You need to download the selected version of

the compiler (eg fpc-2.4.2-0.i686.rpm)
the pascal source library (eg fpc-src-2.4.2-0.i686.rpm)
the Lazarus package (eg lazarus-0.9.30-0.i686.rpm).

Uninstall the old packages:

 rpm -ev lazarus
 rpm -ev fpc
 rpm -ev fpc-src

Install the new packages:

 rpm -ivh fpc-*
 rpm -ivh lazarus-*

Installing on Mandriva

Lazarus 0.9.30 on Mandriva 2010.

Install as given lower down however on compiling a program you may get two error messages telling you that you are missing pixbuf 2.0 and lgtk-x11-2.0. to fix this install from the the software installer libdgk_pixbuf2.0_0-devel and libgtk+2.0_0-devel.

Installing on Slackware

Installing Lazarus on Slackware 13.0

There is no real difference from the slackware 12.2 or 12.0 version, therefore the procedure described below should work just as well.

Installing Lazarus 0.9.30, for Slackware 12.0 users

This have worked in Slackware-12.0 on a Pentium-3 computer:

The Free Pascal Compiler (FPC) is installed in SUPERUSER mode
The lazarus in installed in USER mode
The FPC compiler will be recompiled
The lazarus Integrated Development Environment (IDE) source code is loaded from the SVN server

-- Download "fpc-2.4.2.i386-linux.tar" in a user folder and install it. Go to this folder and type:

 bash-3.1$ tar -xvf fpc-2.4.2.i386-linux.tar
 bash-3.1$ su 
 bash-3.1$ password:xxxxxx
 bash-3.1# sh install.sh
 ...
 (use the default answers for the next 6 questions: press "return" 6 times)
 ...
 bash-3.1# exit
 bash-3.2$ fpc
 free pascal compiler version 2.4.2 [] for i386 
 Copyright (c) 2010 ...
 ...
 ...

You have installed the compiler. You may want to recompile it or not, but in any case you will need to download the source code as it is required by the lazarus IDE.

-- Download "fpc-2.4.2.source.tar.gz" in a temporary folder. If you do not want to recompile the source then just skip this section. If you would like to run your own compiled version of FPC, then just type:

 bash-3.1$ tar -xvzf fpc-2.4.2.source.tar.gz
 bash-3.1$ cd fpc-2.4.2
 bash-3.1$ make clean all
 bash-3.1$ su
 bash-3.1$ password: xxxxxxxx
 bash-3.1# make install
 bash-3.1# exit
 bash-3.1$ fpc
 free pascal compiler version 2.4.2 [...] for i386 
 Copyright (c) 2010 ...
 ...
 ...

Now you have your own compiled version working.

-- The lazarus IDE editor needs to look at the FPC source code. Even if you do not want to recompile FPC, you need its source code. However, in order to save some space, I only keep a clean (not compiled) copy of the source code. I start from the file "fpc-2.4.2.source.tar.gz" again and I copy it to the /usr/local/src/FPC folder:

 bash-3.1$ su
 bash-3.1$ password: xxxxxxxx
 bash-3.1# cp fpc-2.4.2.source.tar.gz /usr/local/src/
 bash-3.1# cd /usr/local/src/
 bash-3.1# tar -xvzf fpc-2.4.2.source.tar.gz
 bash-3.1# rm fpc-2.4.2.source.tar.gz
 bash-3.1# exit

The version number is included in the folder name "fpc-2.4.2". This way I can keep many versions the the compiler source and eventually switch between them.

-- The lazarus IDE is kept in my USER "~/lazarus" folder and always compiled in USER mode. I usually download the "lazarus-0.9.30-0.tar.gz" file, but here we can also get the latest development version from the SVN server:

  bash-3.1$ svn co http://svn.freepascal.org/svn/lazarus/trunk lazarus

This is for the first time you load it. Next time you will only need to type:

  bash-3.1$ svn update

If you do not have SVN installed on your computer, here is how to get it quickly:

--Download the two files: "subversion-1.4.6.tar.gz" and "subversion-deps-1.4.5.tar.gz" (or later versions). Type:

  bash-3.1$ tar -xvzf subversion-1.4.6.tar.gz
  bash-3.1$ tar -xvzf subversion-deps-1.4.6.tar.gz
  bash-3.1$ cd subversion-1.4.6
  bash-3.1$ ./configure
  bash-3.1$ make
  bash-3.1$ su
  bash-3.1$ password:xxxxxx
  bash-3.1# make install
  bash-3.1$ exit

-- At this point you have the folder "~/lazarus" containing the source code. You should compile it very simply:

  bash-3.1$ make clean all

After a few minutes, the compiler stops:

  ...
  ...
  Linking ../Lazbuild
  987 linescompiled ...
  make [2] leaving ...
  make [1] leaving ...
  bash-3.1$

-- Just type:

  bash-3.1$ ./lazarus

WOW! You get a message: "Free Pascal sources not found". Just follow the instructions and indicate your Free Pascal Compiler source directory in the panel: "Environment->Options->Files". As explained earlier, on my computer this should point to "/usr/local/src/fpc-2.4.2". Note that when you change this folder, you should click on "Environment / Rescan_FPC_source_directory".

Voila!

Installing on openSUSE

Installing Lazarus 0.9.30. For openSUSE 11.1 users

Free Pascal Compiler requires:
- Gnu binutils (gnu as, gnu ld, gnu make) These utils can be installed by:

 zypper in -t pattern devel_basis

Lazarus also requires these components: 1) glib2 devel 2) gtk2 devel

Important: The lazarus rpm requires the gtk 2 version, not the version 1.2.

These libraries can be installed by:

 zypper -n install gtk2 glib2

Download these binary files (RPM)

fpc-2.4.2-0.i686.rpm (yes i686 and not i386)
fpc-src-2.4.2-0.i686.rpm
lazarus-0.9.30-0.i686.rpm

install them opening a terminal session (mouse's right button -> Menu: Open in terminal)

 rpm -Uvh fpc-2.4.2-0.i686.rpm
 rpm -Uvh fpc-src-2.4.2-0.i686.rpm
 rpm -Uvh lazarus-0.9.30-0.i686.rpm

Installing from source

If you prefer to install from source and compile the files yourself, follow these instructions. Because the whole lazarus stuff is installed into one directory, uninstall is very easy and you don't need to be root to install lazarus. You can get tgz files for fpc, fpcsrc and lazarus from the downloads section or you can download it directly via svn.

Here is an example of installing 0.9.28 to Ubuntu 6.06. If you understand Linux commands and bash script, you can get what steps are needed. Just copy the script (change the version number when new version has been released), paste it into a text editor, and save it as something like "install_lazarus.sh". Give it execute permission, and run it in a console. Note: In this example, fpc is installed in /opt. So when prompted 'Install prefix', enter '/opt/fpc'.

 #!/bin/sh
 
 #installing required packages
 sudo apt-get install build-essential
 sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-dev
 sudo apt-get install libgdk-pixbuf-dev
 
 #installing FreePascal source
 cd /opt
 sudo wget http://nchc.dl.sourceforge.net/lazarus/fpc-src-2.4.2.source.tgz
 sudo tar -xvf fpc-src-2.4.2.source.tgz
 sudo mv fpc fpcsrc
 
 #installing FreePascal
 sudo mkdir fpc
 cd fpc
 sudo wget http://nchc.dl.sourceforge.net/lazarus/fpc-2.4.2.i686-linux.tar
 sudo tar -xvf fpc-2.4.2.i686-linux.tar
 echo "Enter '/opt/fpc' when prompted 'Install prefix'"
 sudo sh install.sh
 
 #adding fpc path to the PATH
 echo "#FPC PATH" >> ~/.bash_profile
 echo "if [ -d /opt/fpc/bin ] ; then" >> ~/.bash_profile 
 echo PATH=/opt/fpc/bin:"${PATH}" >> ~/.bash_profile
 echo "fi" >> ~/.bash_profile
 
 #installing Lazarus
 cd ../
 sudo wget http://nchc.dl.sourceforge.net/lazarus/lazarus-0.9.30-0.tar.gz
 sudo tar -zxvf lazarus-0.9.30-0.tar.gz
 PATH=/opt/fpc/bin:"${PATH}"
 sudo chmod -R 777 lazarus
 cd lazarus
 make clean all
 ./lazarus

Note: You have to manually set fpc-src path in the Environmental Options.

Downloading Lazarus Source Code

Both the Lazarus and FPC source code reside in SVN/subversion repositories. SVN provides an easy way to update your sources by only downloading the changes. This is the recommended way and saves you a lot of time. A connection to the internet is needed for this, but you don't need to be root.

Please note these instructions are for subversion, but there is also a Git mirror repository of Free Pascal Compiler and Lazarus: see Git mirror. You can also use git directly with the subversion server using git-svn link: see Lazarus git-svn.

Lazarus does not need any special permissions, neither during installation nor at runtime.

If you decide to use TortoiseSVN, remember to check "command line client tools" during its installation if you want Lazarus to show the SVN revision number in the About dialog.

Now the most important thing.... getting the sources

 []$ svn checkout http://svn.freepascal.org/svn/lazarus/trunk/ lazarus

(replace the last lazarus with any other dir where you want to place your sources)

On subsequent occasions, to update simply type

 []$ svn update lazarus

For more information on Subversion, see: http://subversion.tigris.org/

Compiling and running

Whether you checkout from cvs or svn, the next step is:

compile lazarus

[]$ cd lazarus
[]$ make  (gmake on BSD)

If fpc is installed correctly, the compilation should work without problems. If not, see FAQ.

Start lazarus

[]$ ./lazarus

The IDE should start. If you started lazarus in a terminal, you can see some notes about missing settings. This is normal at first start. The IDE automatically tries to find out where the freepascal compiler and its sources are installed by searching in the most common directories.

Check the paths

Use the IDE menu to go to

Environment -> Environment Options -> Files

The 'FPC Source directory' should point to your fpc source directory. This directory normally ends with /fpc/ or /fpcsrc/ (e.g. /usr/src/fpcsrc or /home/username/freepascal/fpc) and contains directories like 'compiler', 'docs', 'fcl', 'rtl' and 'packages'.

See here for the documentation about this dialog: IDE Options.

Hint

To update lazarus you can use

[]$ svn update lazarus

then for either update pathway:

[]$ make clean all   (gmake on BSD)

This will rebuild lazarus and create an IDE without lazarus packages. To link your installed packages do after the above:

[]$ ./lazbuild --build-ide=

You may have to append other options if for example you use a custom config directory (ie. add --pcp="C:\Documents and Settings\<USER>\Local Settings\Application Data\lazarus-tests"). See lazbuild.

Installing Lazarus under Debian GNU/Linux

There are preliminary Debian packages for lazarus available for download. They are not the latest versions, however. Make sure you read /usr/share/doc/lazarus/README.Debian carefully before you start using it. Feedback is needed and appreciated; please send your comments to Carlos Laviola <claviola@debian.org>.

Note that for a fully working Lazarus install, no older or incompatible versions of, for example, the fpc source or fpc compiler must be installed. Remove them by typing

 dpkg -r <package name>

without .deb extension. And then install the newest versions as described.

Installing Lazarus under Windows

The current releases of the Windows Lazarus binary packages install very easily, and should work 'out-of-the-box'.

It is even possible to install the whole Lazarus/FPC package on a portable USB drive (capacity at least 256 MB), for use in environments where you are not allowed to install software on your Windows workstation or where you haven't got administrator privileges. You do have to be a little careful about adjusting the paths in the compiler and environment options and the fpc.cfg file. It may also be necessary to keep the directory for test compilation on your portable drive.

<< Q:DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW TO SET UP RELATIVE PATHS IN THESE TAGS AND FILES, SO THAT THE ADDRESSING WORKS WHEN YOU MOVE THE USB DEVICE TO ANOTHER MACHINE WHERE IT HAS A DIFFERENT DRIVE LETTER?

A: This is what I do. It's relatively convoluted, but it's the best solution I've found. I have a "bin" directory on my USB drive, where I have several scripts and utilities installed. Inside that directory is a batch file called "setenv.bat" which sets an environment variable called THUMBDRIVE. It is set by using this command in the batch file:

  set THUMBDRIVE=%CD:~0,2%

This is used in setenv.bat to set some paths to other things I have installed on the USB drive. I also have a link in the root directory of the thumb drive with this property:

 %SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe /k bin\setenv

so that when I click on that link when the thumb drive folder is diplayed after inserting it, it will open a command prompt at the thumb drive with the environment variables set from setenv.bat.

Also inside the bin directory is sed (the actual binary is one I obtained from the mingw distribution). So I created another batch file called fixlaz.bat which takes one argument, the drive letter which is currently in the Lazarus/fpc settings files that you want to change (note that this is the previous drive letter the last time you ran fixlaz.bat, not the current one of your USB drive which fixlaz.bat already knows). You will need to create this batch file to fit where you installed Lazarus in the root directory structure of the drive if you didn't install it directly in the root folder, and then repeat these lines also for the editoroptions.xml and fpc.cfg files (fpc.cfg is the the fpc bin directory, which might be buried deep in the lazarus folder):

 copy %THUMBDRIVE%\lazarus\environmentoptions.xml %THUMBDRIVE%\lazarus\environmentoptions.bak
 sed -e 's/%1/%THUMBDRIVE%/g' %THUMBDRIVE%\lazarus\environmentoptions.bak > %THUMBDRIVE%\lazarus\environmentoptions.xml

So to use it, I would type at the command prompt of the USB drive:

 fixlaz G:

if "G:" was the previous drive letter used the last time I ran it. This will then scan the file(s) and replace "G:" with the current drive letter of the USB drive, which is in the %THUMBDRIVE% environment variable (after running setenv.bat). Note that you could write it to save the current drive letter in a separate file, so that you wouldn't have to remember it yourself the next time. But this works well enough for me right now. >>

The binary package is available for Linux and Windows from

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=89339

Download the latest release (currently Lazarus-0.9.30-0-win32.exe) and launch the application. You will be taken through a typical Windows installation, in which the FPC compiler and source libraries are installed within the same directory structure as Lazarus, and the IDE should launch and operate without significant problems, provided you have uninstalled(!!!) any previous version of Lazarus and/or FPC (often found in the C:\pp directory).

You can also use a Lazarus Snapshot. For download locations see Lazarus Snapshots Downloads.

Tip: It's perhaps a good idea to reboot your Windows after you installed Lazarus and before you try to install additional lazarus components as zeoslib fore example.

Installing from source

If you prefer to install from sources, then follow these instructions.

Please note these instructions are for SubVersion, but there is also a Git mirror repository of Free Pascal Compiler and Lazarus. See Git mirror for details. You can also use git directly with SubVersion server using git-svn link. See Lazarus git-svn for details.

Open a command prompt window. Start->Run...>CMD or choose MS-DOS icon. You will use this window to enter the commands below

You have to download the lazarus source from one of the snapshots servers. Then unzip it to c:\lazarus for example [below called $(LazarusDir)].

Or you use SVN (example for text mode SVN; adapt to GUI tools such as TortoiseSVN if you want to):

 []mkdir c:\lazarus
 []cd /d c:\lazarus
 []svn checkout http://svn.freepascal.org/svn/lazarus/trunk/ c:\lazarus

You have to install at least the latests stable FPC version (e.g. FPC 2.4.4, but an FPC 2.5.1 snapshot is also possible).

Type (replace $(LazarusDir) with the path you have unzipped/checked out Lazarus; replace

cd /d $(LazarusDir)\ide
rem Of course change the first path variable to
rem the path of your FPC compiler
set path=c:\freepascal\bin\i386-win32;$(LazarusDir)
rem Is this next step really necessary for current Lazarus? BigChimp Jan 2012???
windres -i lazarus.rc -o lazarus.res
cd $(LazarusDir)
make

If this works, you can type: lazarus.exe.

You can compile examples also:

cd /d $(LazarusDir)\examples
make

If you extracted lazarus to another drive, eg.: d:\lazarus, tt can happen that you need the gnu make utility to make it. If you have it, you can take its path to set path=...;<gmakepath> but it is simpler not to choose drive d:\

Installing from source starting with a stable release

An alternative version of the instructions above.

1> First of all install the latest stable Lazarus to obtain a good starting FPC, for example in C:\lazarus_0_30

2> Now use TortoiseSVN to checkout http://svn.freepascal.org/svn/lazarus/trunk/ into c:\lazarus

3> Make the following C:\lazarus\build.bat file:

Replace $(LazarusDir) with your Lazarus did and make sure the FPC version number matches

SET PATH=$(LazarusDir)\fpc\2.4.4\bin\i386-win32\
make bigide

Now create a shortcut in your desktop to start Lazarus and put the following command to start Lazarus which will make sure that it separates the config files from the stable and the SVN versions:

$(LazarusDir)\startlazarus.exe --pcp=$(LazarusDir)\configdir

Always start Lazarus from this shortcut, never directly from the executable. At the first time you start Lazarus configure you FPC dir, FPC sources dir and Lazarus dir.

Installing Lazarus under FreeBSD

FreeBSD 7+

The latest version of Lazarus available in the FreeBSD port tree, is v0.9.30.4 We can use that to install Lazarus.

[]# cd /usr/ports/editors/lazarus && make install clean clean-depends

If you start Lazarus IDE and you get a messages about missing source files, then go to Environment - Environment Options - Files Tab: FPC source library and enter the directory of the FPC source files. It can be obtained from /usr/ports/distfiles/freepascal

Installing Lazarus under PC-BSD 1.0rc1+

You can install Lazarus on PB-BSD by simply downloading the Lazarus PBI from PBI Dir

Note that you must install glib* port from /usr/port/devel/glib* or glib packages by pkg_add -r glib12 glib20. I will fix this in new PBI releases.

[other OpenBSD/NetBSD/DragonFlyBSD goes here]

Installing Lazarus under Mac OS X

See Installing Lazarus on MacOS X.

Installing Lazarus under Haiku

Lazarus requires Qt under Haiku. Qt is not installed by default under Haiku. You need to install package available from this site : http://qt-haiku.ru/

Currently, there is no binary package to install Lazarus.

You will have to compile Lazarus from sources.

Detailed instructions to build Lazarus under Haiku are available here : Installing Lazarus on Haiku

Multiple Lazarus installs

Please see Multiple Lazarus for details on having more than one Lazarus version installed on one system. We cover issues that can arise due to multiple Lazarus installs here, because they can also happen when installing over a previous version.

Troubleshooting

These hints should be applicable across platforms; please adjust paths etc. according to your platform. Also, problems and solutions might be mentioned in the Lazarus_Faq.

Isolating the component

There may be multiple problems when installing FreePascal and Lazarus. If you have problems with starting Lazarus or compiling with it, first make sure your underlying FPC installation works, e.g. by trying to compile a simple example program.

Location of installed components

On Linux/Unix/OSX, package/distribution provided installations will often install FPC in /bin or /usr/bin, with the libraries in /lib or /usr/lib, and probably the configuration in /etc/fpc.cfg Source (Subversion) downloads often install in /usr/local/bin (libraries in /usr/local/lib).

Missing or corrupt fpc.cfg file

The fpc.cfg file is the configuration file for FPC. For windows, it can normally be found in the fpc compiler's executable directory. On Unix/Linux/OSX, it is first searched in /etc/fpc.cfg, then Only some problems that often occur are covered. Please see the Free Pascal User's guide, e.g. chapter Compiler usage/configuration file for more details, including the search order for fpc.cfg

If it is not present, FPC will in general not compile your programs properly.

Create fpc.cfg automatically

You can try to create fpc.cfg via a tool:

rem Change to the FPC executable directory, adjust to taste
cd /d C:\freepascal\fpc\2.4.5\bin\i386-win32
rem Create fpc.cfg; basepath is the "root" of your fpc tree
fpcmkcfg -d basepath=C:\freepascal\fpc\2.4.5 -o .\fpc.cfg

(Note: earlier instructions had \bin\i386-win32 appended to the basepath. This is not needed since at least FPC 2.4.4.)

Create fpc.cfg manually

If the above doesn't work for you, you can copy/paste the code below to a new file named fpc.cfg to your fpc executable directory (or ~/.fpc.cfg or other location). Modify the paths so they match your situation.

$FPCVERSION is used to automatically determine the version of FPC being used for the compile. Using this variable allows this single fpc.cfg to be used with multiple fpc versions that have the same path structure making it easier to maintain multiple FPC installs.


Config file generated by fpcmkcfg on 24/12/2010 - 18:17:42
Example fpc.cfg for Free Pascal Compiler

----------------------
Defines (preprocessor)
----------------------


nested #IFNDEF, #IFDEF, #ENDIF, #ELSE, #DEFINE, #UNDEF are allowed

-d is the same as #DEFINE
-u is the same as #UNDEF


Some examples (for switches see below, and the -? helppages)

Try compiling with the -dRELEASE or -dDEBUG on the commandline

For a release compile with optimizes and strip debuginfo
IFDEF RELEASE

-O2
-Xs

WRITE Compiling Release Version
ENDIF

For a debug version compile with debuginfo and all codegeneration checks on
IFDEF DEBUG

-glh
-Crtoi

WRITE Compiling Debug Version
ENDIF

----------------
Parsing switches
----------------

Pascal language mode
-Mfpc      free pascal dialect (default)
-Mobjfpc   switch some Delphi 2 extensions on
-Mdelphi   tries to be Delphi compatible
-Mtp       tries to be TP/BP 7.0 compatible
-Mgpc      tries to be gpc compatible
-Mmacpas   tries to be compatible to the macintosh pascal dialects

Turn on Object Pascal extensions by default
-Mobjfpc

Assembler reader mode
-Rdefault  use default assembler
-Ratt      read AT&T style assembler
-Rintel    read Intel style assembler

All assembler blocks are AT&T styled by default
-Ratt

Semantic checking
-S2        same as -Mobjfpc
-Sc        supports operators like C (*=,+=,/= and -=)
-Sa        include assertion code.
-Sd        same as -Mdelphi
-Se<x>     compiler stops after the <x> errors (default is 1)
-Sg        allow LABEL and GOTO
-Sh        Use ansistrings
-Si        support C++ styled INLINE
-SI<x>     set interface style to <x>
-SIcomCOM compatible interface (default)
-SIcorbaCORBA compatible interface
-Sm        support macros like C (global)
-So        same as -Mtp
-Sp        same as -Mgpc
-Ss        constructor name must be init (destructor must be done)

Allow goto, inline, C-operators, C-vars

-Sgic

---------------
Code generation
---------------

Uncomment the next line if you always want static/dynamic units by default
(can be overruled with -CD, -CS at the commandline)
-CS
-CD

Set the default heapsize to 8Mb
-Ch8000000

Set default codegeneration checks (iocheck, overflow, range, stack)
-Ci
-Co
-Cr
-Ct

Optimizer switches for i386 compiler
-Os        generate smaller code
-O1        level 1 optimizations (quick optimizations)
-O2        level 2 optimizations (-O1 + slower optimizations)
-O3        level 3 optimizations (same as -O2u)
-Oa=N      set alignment to N
-OoX       switch on optimalization X.
-OoNOX     switch off optimalization X.
X is one of REGVAR UNCERTAIN STACKFRAME PEEPHOLE ASMCSE LOOPUNROLL
-OpCPU     set target processor.
CPU is one of 386, PENTIUM, PENTIUM2, PENTIUM3, PENTIUM4, PENTIUMM

-----------------------
Set Filenames and Paths
-----------------------

Both slashes and backslashes are allowed in paths

path to the messagefile, not necessary anymore but can be used to override
the default language
-FrC:\freepascal\fpc\$FPCVERSION/msg/errore.msg
-FrC:\freepascal\fpc\$FPCVERSION/msg/errorn.msg
-FrC:\freepascal\fpc\$FPCVERSION/msg/errores.msg
-FrC:\freepascal\fpc\$FPCVERSION/msg/errord.msg
-FrC:\freepascal\fpc\$FPCVERSION/msg/errorr.msg

IFDEF FPCAPACHE_1_13

-FuC:\freepascal\fpc\$FPCVERSION/units/$FPCTARGET/httpd13/

ELSE
IFDEF FPCAPACHE_2_0

-FuC:\freepascal\fpc\$FPCVERSION/units/$FPCTARGET/httpd20

ELSE

-FuC:\freepascal\fpc\$FPCVERSION/units/$FPCTARGET/httpd22

ENDIF
ENDIF

searchpath for units and other system dependent things

-FuC:\freepascal\fpc\$FPCVERSION/units/$FPCTARGET/
-FuC:\freepascal\fpc\$FPCVERSION/units/$FPCTARGET/*
-FuC:\freepascal\fpc\$FPCVERSION/units/$FPCTARGET/rtl

path to the gcclib

searchpath for libraries
-FlC:\freepascal\fpc\$FPCVERSION/lib
-Fl/lib;/usr/lib

searchpath for tools

-FDC:\freepascal\fpc\$FPCVERSION/bin/$FPCTARGET

IFNDEF CPUI386
IFNDEF CPUAMD64
DEFINE NEEDCROSSBINUTILS
ENDIF
ENDIF

IFNDEF Win32
DEFINE NEEDCROSSBINUTILS
ENDIF

binutils prefix for cross compiling
IFDEF FPC_CROSSCOMPILING
IFDEF NEEDCROSSBINUTILS

-XP$FPCTARGET-

ENDIF
ENDIF

-------------
Linking
-------------

generate always debugging information for GDB (slows down the compiling
process)
-gc        generate checks for pointers
-gd        use dbx
-gg        use gsym
-gh        use heap trace unit (for memory leak debugging)
-gl        use line info unit to show more info for backtraces
-gv        generates programs tracable with valgrind
-gw        generate dwarf debugging info

Enable debuginfo and use the line info unit by default
-gl

always pass an option to the linker
-k-s

Always strip debuginfo from the executable

-Xs

-------------
Miscellaneous
-------------

Write always a nice FPC logo ;)

-l

Verbosity
e : Show errors (default)       d : Show debug info
w : Show warnings               u : Show unit info
n : Show notes                  t : Show tried/used files
h : Show hints                  m : Show defined macros
i : Show general info           p : Show compiled procedures
l : Show linenumbers            c : Show conditionals
a : Show everything             0 : Show nothing (except errors)
b : Show all procedure          r : Rhide/GCC compatibility mode
declarations if an error    x : Executable info (Win32 only)
occurs

Display Info, Warnings, Notes and Hints

-viwn

If you don't want so much verbosity use
-vw

Testing and batch file/shortcut usage

You can also explicitly specify a fpc.cfg to use:<bash>fpc -n -@/path/to/fpc.cfg</bash>. Handy for testing, creating shortcuts/shell scripts, having multiple FPC installations etc.

If that does not work, you can try to create fpc.cfg manually: copy over an existing fpc.cfg from a working installation and change the paths.

Mixing FPC versions

If your FPC cannot find its sources/ppu files while fpc.cfg has the right paths, another cause could be that the fpc executable is a different version than the (link to) ppc<architecture> compiler.

When compiling with fpc, fpc starts e.g ppc386 to compile for x86 targets. Please make sure fpc and ppc<architecture> are compiled by the same version/sourced from the same package.

Lazarus can't find sources

There may be a message saying Lazarus can't find the sources; if so, go to the menu at the top and select Environment -> Environment options and insert the name of the directory where you expect to find your lazarus files (eg ~/FreePascal/lazarus), your compiler (e.g. /usr/local/bin/ppc386), the FreePascal source directory (e.g. /usr/local/lib/fpc/$version/fpc or a directory in your own space e.g. ~/FreePascal/fpc). Then close the dialog and start programming.

Paths in Lazarus options and project options

Note that you can set paths (for compiler, FPC units etc) in the general options settings. Options you specify in Project Options can override these per project. If you experience path-related problems in a project but not in another, you might check if you mistakenly override general options.

Installing old versions

See Installation hints for old versions

Installing Lazarus

Overview

Lazarus System Requirements

Installing The Free Pascal Compiler

Installing Free Pascal under Linux

FPC Binaries

FPC Sources

Download Daily Source Snapshot of Development Tree

Up to date source repository using SVN

Getting the source

Getting a separate branch

Documentation

Installing Free Pascal under Windows

FPC Binaries for Windows

FPC Sources for Windows

Compiling/installing FPC and Lazarus from Sources of SVN (Win32)

STEP #1: Create directories and get the sources

STEP #2: Create a BAT file to compile FPC

STEP #3: Make and install FPC

STEP #4: Create fpc.cfg file

STEP #5: Create a BAT file to compile Lazarus

STEP #6: Make Lazarus

Installing Free Pascal under FreeBSD/auto

Installing Free Pascal under Linux/BSD manually

Installing Free Pascal under Mac OS X

Installing Lazarus

Installing Lazarus under Linux

Ubuntu 11.04 or later

Note: the scripts are only compatible with 32-bit system

Ubuntu / Debian

Building debs the easy way

Installing using rpms

Installing on Mandriva

Lazarus 0.9.30 on Mandriva 2010.

Installing on Slackware

Installing Lazarus on Slackware 13.0

Installing Lazarus 0.9.30, for Slackware 12.0 users

Installing on openSUSE

Installing Lazarus 0.9.30. For openSUSE 11.1 users

Installing from source

Downloading Lazarus Source Code

Compiling and running

Installing Lazarus under Debian GNU/Linux

Installing Lazarus under Windows

Installing from source

Installing from source starting with a stable release

Installing Lazarus under FreeBSD

FreeBSD 7+

Installing Lazarus under PC-BSD 1.0rc1+

Installing Lazarus under Mac OS X

Installing Lazarus under Haiku

Multiple Lazarus installs

Troubleshooting

Isolating the component

Location of installed components

Missing or corrupt fpc.cfg file

Create fpc.cfg automatically

Create fpc.cfg manually

Testing and batch file/shortcut usage

Mixing FPC versions

Lazarus can't find sources

Paths in Lazarus options and project options

Installing old versions

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