---
~~Title: Installing EFL on Arch~~
---

# Installing EFL on Arch #

[The *Enlightenment Foundation Libraries (EFL)*](/about-efl.md) power millions of systems from mobile phones to set-top boxes, desktops, laptops, game systems and more. You'll need EFL if you want to develop apps for Enlightenment and for any of the devices that use Enlightenment for its visual interface. 

This tutorial describes several ways to install EFL on your system. You will only need to use one of these. Select your chosen method using the index on the right.

Many distributions offer EFL as an installable package from their default repositories. In this case you only need to use your distribution's software management system to install. However most versions of EFL in default repositories are out of date and will not support more recent Enlightenment applications. If this is not an issue for you, read through the ["From  Distribution Repositories"](#From_Distribution_Repositories) section below.

Distributions often provide a special repository maintained by users or a method of integrating a bleeding edge version of EFL with your software management system. This means that once installed you can keep EFL current just by running system updates. If your distribution offers this, take a look at the section ["Installing from a Special Repository"](#Installing_from_a_Special_Repository).

We maintain such a repository. To add it to your pacman configuration just do one of these, depending which tool you have installed. Just remove `sudo` if you are already doing this as root.

#### curl

```bash
curl https://download.enlightenment.org/distros/arch/archlinux/arch/repo.txt -o - | sudo tee -a /etc/pacman.conf
```

#### wget

```bash
wget https://download.enlightenment.org/distros/arch/archlinux/arch/repo.txt -O - | sudo tee -a /etc/pacman.conf
```

Then to install the packages for the first time:

```bash
sudo pacman -Sy && sudo pacman -S efl-git enlightenment-git terminology-git rage-git ecrire-git entice-git evisum-git
```

They will be updated whenever you sync your package repo from now on automatically.

----

The Enlightenment developers provide a pre-packaged source of EFL. Although not bleeding edge it is up to date and considered stable for production environments. You can download, compile and install it yourself by following the instructions in ["Installing from Packaged Source"](#Installing_from_Packaged_Source).

You can also download the source code for the most recent version from the EFL git repositories. This will provide you with the latest code, which is usually of stable quality. To get started, read the section ["Installing from Git"](#Installing_from_Git).

Whichever installation method you use, visit ["Compiling EFL Applications"](#Compiling_EFL_Applications) to discover how to compile your Enlightenment applications.

## From  Distribution Repositories ##

Arch contains an instance of the EFL package in its official repositories. To install, run the following command as root:

```bash
pacman -S efl
```

This will give you a working EFL installation.

The version in Arch's official repositories may lag behind the latest version of EFL. This may cause problems when trying to compile examples from tutorials in this guide. If this happens, install a more recent version of EFL using one of the methods listed below.

## Installing from a Special Repository ##

You can use Arch's package management system to install an up-to-date version of EFL from the *Arch User Repository (AUR)* named [efl-git](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/efl-git). Using the *efl-git* AUR is relatively simple and makes your EFL package easy to maintain using Arch's package management system, *pacman*. There is also [enlightenment-git](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/enlightenment-git), [rage-git](
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/rage-git), [terminology-git](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/terminology-git)

### Step 1: Download Meta Package ###

Download the files containing the required meta-information to install EFL from the AUR:

```bash
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/efl-git.git
```

### Step 2: Install Build Tools and Dependencies ###

In order to build EFL from source, you'll need some tools:

```bash
pacman -S gcc fakeroot binutils meson ninja pkg-config ccache debugedit
```

The *makepkg* script in the following step will handle all the dependencies for you.

### Step 3: Make Package ###

Now ``cd`` into the new ``efl-git`` directory and build the package with:

```bash
makepkg -s
```

This process will download EFL from the Enlightenment git repositories, run the configuration and download and install the remaining dependencies. It will also compile and install the software (locally) then build a viable and installable package for your system. None of these steps need to be run as root.

### Step 4: Install the package ###

When *makepkg* is finished you'll find a file in your directory with a name like ``efl-git-X.XX.XX.XXXXX.XXXXXXXXX-X-XXXXXX.pkg.tar.xz``. This is the actual package you can install. To do this as root run:

```bash
sudo pacman -U efl-git-*.pkg.tar.xz
```

*pacman* will now install EFL for you.

## Installing from Packaged Source ##

There are two versions available from the Enlightenment website. One is the bleeding edge version which you can [download using git](#Installing_from_Git). The other is packaged and available from the [EFL download site](https://download.enlightenment.org/rel/libs/efl/), which is the focus of this section. 

### Step 1: Downloading Stable Version ###

[Download the latest version of EFL](https://download.enlightenment.org/rel/libs/efl/) and check it against its SHA256 hash:

```bash
wget https://download.enlightenment.org/rel/libs/efl/efl-X.XX.X.tar.xz
wget https://download.enlightenment.org/rel/libs/efl/efl-X.XX.X.tar.xz.sha256
cat efl-X.XX.X.tar.xz.sha256; sha256sum efl-X.XX.X.tar.xz
```

Note that you will have to change ``X.XX.X`` to the actual version of EFL.

### Step 2: Unpacking ###

Once you have the archive file containing EFL on your hard disk unpack it with:

```bash
tar xvf efl-X.XX.X.tar.xz
```

This will produce a folder named ``efl-X.XX.X``.

### Step 3: Installing Dependencies ###

Before you can compile and install EFL you need to install the required software packages and tools:

```bash 
pacman -S meson ninja pkgconf gcc binutils python2 avahi bullet curl fontconfig harfbuzz fribidi gst-plugins-base-libs luajit libexif libgl libinput libpulse libspectre libraw librsvg libwebp libxcomposite libxcursor libxinerama libxkbcommon libxp libxrandr libxss libunwind mesa openjpeg2 poppler shared-mime-info ttf-font scim libibus glib2 pulseaudio gst-plugins-base gst-plugins-good gst-plugins-bad gst-plugins-ugly gst-libav libreoffice check
```

### Step 4: Building and Installing ###

Once you have installed all the required packages, ``cd`` into the ``efl-X.XX.X`` folder and run 

```bash
meson build
ninja -C build
sudo ninja -C build install
```

This will configure the files needed for compiling, compile the software, then install it.

### Step 5: Carrying out Post Installation Tasks ###

You also have to make some files visible to *pkgconfig*. To do this open ``/etc/profile`` in a text editor as root (using for example ``sudo nano /etc/profile``) and add the following line to the end:

```bash
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$PKG_CONFIG_PATH:/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig
```

You may also need to refresh your library path to make sure your apps can find the EFL libraries:

```bash
sudo ldconfig
```

## Installing from Git ##

You can also download the bleeding edge version of EFL by cloning it from the git repository.

### Step 1: Installing git and Cloning ###

By default, *git* is not installed in Arch, so first install it:

```bash
pacman -S git
```

Next clone EFL's source code:

```bash
git clone https://git.enlightenment.org/enlightenment/efl.git
```

This will create a directory named ``efl/``.

### Step 2: Installing Dependencies ###

You'll need to install some tools to build the configuration file:

```bash
pacman -S meson ninja pkgconf gcc binutils check python2
```

You also must install the dependencies specific to EFL:

```bash
pacman -S avahi bullet curl fontconfig harfbuzz fribidi gst-plugins-base-libs luajit libexif libgl libinput libpulse libspectre libraw librsvg libwebp libxcomposite libxcursor libxinerama libxkbcommon libxp libxrandr libxss libunwind mesa openjpeg2 poppler shared-mime-info ttf-font scim libibus glib2 pulseaudio gst-plugins-base gst-plugins-good gst-plugins-bad gst-plugins-ugly gst-libav libreoffice
```

### Step 3: Configuring the Software ###

You can now ``cd`` into the ``efl\`` directory and run the ``autoreconf`` script to create and configure the software, ready for compilation:

```bash
meson build
```

Once configured, compile the software with:

```bash
ninja -C build
sudo ninja -C build install
```

### Step 4: Carrying out Post Installation Tasks ###

You also have to make some files visible to *pkgconfig*. To do this open ``/etc/profile`` in a text editor as root (using for example ``sudo nano /etc/profile``) and add the following line to the end:

```bash
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$PKG_CONFIG_PATH:/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig
```

You may also need to refresh your library path to make sure your apps can find the EFL libraries:

```bash
sudo ldconfig
```

## Troubleshooting ##

If you are having problems compiling and installing EFL you can find help on [our IRC channels](https://www.enlightenment.org/contact) or [post a ticket to our Gitea](https://git.enlightenment.org/enlightenment/efl/issues/new).

## Installing on Other Operating Systems ##

If you would like to install EFL on a different operating system visit the [Installing EFL](start) page.