BoxLang Quick Installer

The BoxLang Quick Installer is the fastest way to get started with BoxLang.

BQI

The BoxLang Quick Installer provides convenient installation scripts for Mac, Linux, and Windows systems to get BoxLang up and running in minutes. Choose between a single-version installer for simplicity or BVM (BoxLang Version Manager) for advanced version management.

🚀 Quick Start

Mac and Linux:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://install.boxlang.io)"

# With automatic Java 21  installation
curl -fsSL https://install.boxlang.io | bash -s -- --with-jre

Homebrew

brew tap ortus-boxlang/boxlang

# Quick Installer
brew install ortus-boxlang/boxlang/boxlang
install-boxlang

Windows:

# Single version (simple)
powershell -NoExit -Command "iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://install-windows.boxlang.io'))"

Verify Installation

# Check BoxLang version
boxlang --version

# Start BoxLang REPL
boxlang

# Start MiniServer
boxlang-miniserver --port 8080

📋 Prerequisites

The installer will attempt to install any missing prerequisites automatically, but there are some that will need to be installed manually depending on your platform.

• bash - Required shell execution environment, especially on Alpine Linux
• curl - For downloading releases
• PowerShell 6+ - Required for Windows installations

Alpine Linux : You will need to install bash manually as it is not included by default.

apk add --no-cache bash curl

Requirements

The following are automatically installed for you, but you can install them manually if you prefer.

• Java 21+ - JRE or JDK
• unzip - For extracting downloaded files
• jq - For parsing JSON (BVM only)

Manual Installation

Remember, we do this automatically for you, but if you want to do it manually, here are the commands:

macOS (with Homebrew):

brew install curl unzip jq openjdk@21

Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install curl unzip jq default-jdk

RHEL/CentOS/Fedora:

sudo dnf install curl unzip jq java-21-openjdk

Alpine Linux:

# Prerequisites automatically installed by installer
apk add --no-cache bash curl unzip jq openjdk21
# Java 21 automatically installed with --with-jre option

📋 Table of Contents

• Quick Start
• Prerequisites
• Installation Options
• Command Options
• What Gets Installed
• Help Command
• Detailed Usage
• Running Applications
• Configuration
• Troubleshooting
• Resources
• License
• Support

📦 Installation Options

Option 1: Single-Version Installer (Recommended for Most Users)

Choose this if you:

• 📌 Need one BoxLang version system-wide
• 🎯 Want the simplest possible installation
• 🏢 Are setting up production servers
• ⚡ Want the fastest installation with minimal overhead

Features:

• ✅ Installs latest stable BoxLang version
• ✅ Sets up BoxLang runtime and MiniServer
• ✅ Includes all helper scripts
• ✅ Automatic PATH configuration
• ✅ User or system-wide installation options

Option 2: BVM (BoxLang Version Manager)

Choose this if you:

• 🔄 Work on multiple projects needing different BoxLang versions
• 🧪 Want to test code against different BoxLang releases
• 🚀 Need to switch between stable and snapshot versions
• 📦 Want centralized management of BoxLang installations
• 🛠️ Are a BoxLang developer or advanced user

Features:

• ✅ Install and manage multiple BoxLang versions
• ✅ Switch between versions with one command
• ✅ List local and remote versions
• ✅ Clean uninstall capabilities
• ✅ Health check and diagnostics

⚙️ Command Options

Here are the available options for the install command.

Option	Short	Description
--help	-h	Show this help message
--uninstall		Remove BoxLang from the system
--check-update		Check if a newer version is available
--system		Force system-wide installation (requires sudo)
--force		Force reinstallation even if already installed
--with-commandbox		Install CommandBox without prompting
--without-commandbox		Skip CommandBox installation
--with-jre		✨ Automatically install Java 21 JRE if not found
--without-jre		✨ Skip Java installation (manual installation required)
--yes	-y	Use defaults for all prompts (installs CommandBox and Java)

Notes

• Use --system when you want to install BoxLang for all users on the system
• The --force option is useful when you need to reinstall or update an existing installation
• --yes automatically accepts all defaults, including installing CommandBox and Java
• --with-commandbox and --without-commandbox give you explicit control over CommandBox installation
• ✨ --with-jre automatically installs OpenJDK 21 JRE if Java 21+ is not found
• ✨ --without-jre skips Java installation entirely (you must install Java manually)
• ✨ The installer can detect your OS (macOS/Linux/Alpine) and architecture (x64/ARM64) for Java installation
• 🐋 Container-friendly - Works in Docker containers with minimal base images

🛠️ What Gets Installed

Core Components

• BoxLang Runtime (boxlang, bx) - The main BoxLang Runtime Engine
• BoxLang MiniServer (boxlang-miniserver, bx-miniserver) - Lightweight web application server

Helper Scripts

• install-bx-module - Install modules from ForgeBox.
• install-boxlang - Single-version BoxLang installer, so you can reinstall, install specific versions, uninstall and more.

Directory Structure

~/.local/boxlang/           # BoxLang home directory
├── bin/              # Executable binaries
├── lib/              # Core libraries
├── scripts/          # Installed scripts

# System installation locations:
System Wide: /usr/local/bin/       # Binaries (Linux/Mac)
Local User: ~/.local/bin/          # Binaries (Linux/Mac)

C:\BoxLang\  # Installation directory (Windows)

📖 Help Command

Always make sure to run the --help command to get the latest and greatest command usage.

📦 BoxLang® Quick Installer [e-mail]@

This script installs the BoxLang® runtime, MiniServer and tools on your system.

Usage:
  install-boxlang [version] [options]
  install-boxlang --help

Arguments:
  [version]         (Optional) Specify which version to install
                    - 'latest' (default): Install the latest stable release
                    - 'snapshot': Install the latest development snapshot
                    - '1.2.0': Install a specific version number

Options:
  --help, -h            Show this help message
  --uninstall           Remove BoxLang from the system
  --check-update        Check if a newer version is available
  --system              Force system-wide installation (requires sudo)
  --force               Force reinstallation even if already installed
  --with-commandbox     Install CommandBox without prompting
  --without-commandbox  Skip CommandBox installation
  --with-jre            ✨ Automatically install Java 21 JRE if not found
  --without-jre         ✨ Skip Java installation (manual installation required)
  --yes, -y             Use defaults for all prompts (installs CommandBox and Java)

Examples:
  install-boxlang
  install-boxlang latest
  install-boxlang snapshot
  install-boxlang 1.2.0
  install-boxlang --force
  install-boxlang --with-commandbox
  install-boxlang --without-commandbox
  install-boxlang --with-jre
  install-boxlang --without-jre
  install-boxlang --with-commandbox --with-jre
  install-boxlang --yes
  install-boxlang --uninstall
  install-boxlang --check-update
  sudo install-boxlang --system

Non-Interactive Usage:
  🌐 Install with CommandBox: curl -fsSL https://boxlang.io/install.sh | bash -s -- --with-commandbox
  🌐 Install without CommandBox: curl -fsSL https://boxlang.io/install.sh | bash -s -- --without-commandbox
  🌐 Install with Java auto-install: curl -fsSL https://boxlang.io/install.sh | bash -s -- --with-jre
  🌐 Full auto-install (Java + CommandBox): curl -fsSL https://boxlang.io/install.sh | bash -s -- --yes
  🌐 Install with defaults: curl -fsSL https://boxlang.io/install.sh | bash -s -- --yes

🎯 Detailed Usage

Single-Version Installer Commands

# Install latest stable version
install-boxlang

# Install specific version
install-boxlang --version 1.2.0

# Install snapshot version
install-boxlang --snapshot

# ✨ NEW: Auto-install with Java (if not found)
install-boxlang --with-jre

# ✨ NEW: Skip Java installation entirely
install-boxlang --without-jre

# ✨ NEW: Full automation (Java + CommandBox)
install-boxlang --yes

# ✨ NEW: Combine options for specific setup
install-boxlang --with-commandbox --with-jre

# System-wide installation (requires sudo)
sudo install-boxlang --system

# Uninstall BoxLang
install-boxlang --uninstall

# Get help
install-boxlang --help

Module Management

# Install a module globally
install-bx-module bx-orm

# Install multiple modules
install-bx-module bx-orm,bx-mail,bx-db

# Install to specific directory
install-bx-module bx-orm --directory ./modules

# Install specific version
install-bx-module bx-orm@1.0.0

# Get help
install-bx-module --help

🌐 Running Applications

BoxLang Runtime

# Start REPL
boxlang

# Run a class
boxlang Task.bx

# Run a script
boxlang myscript.bxs

# Execute inline code
boxlang -c "println('Hello BoxLang!')"

# Compile to bytecode
boxlang compile myscript.bx

# Show version
boxlang --version

BoxLang MiniServer

# Start with default settings
boxlang-miniserver

# Specify port
boxlang-miniserver --port 8080

# Set web root
boxlang-miniserver --webroot ./public

# Enable development mode
boxlang-miniserver --dev

# Show all options
boxlang-miniserver --help

🔧 Configuration

Environment Variables

# BoxLang home directory
export BOXLANG_HOME=~/.boxlang

# Java options for BoxLang
export BOXLANG_OPTS="-Xmx2g -Xms512m"

# Module search paths
export BOXLANG_MODULES_PATH="./modules:~/.boxlang/modules"

🐛 Troubleshooting

Common Issues

BoxLang not found after installation:

# Restart terminal or reload profile
source ~/.bashrc  # or ~/.zshrc

# Check PATH
echo $PATH | grep boxlang

Java not found:

# ✨ NEW: Let BoxLang installer handle Java automatically
install-boxlang --with-jre

# Or check Java installation manually
java -version

# Manual Java installation options:
# Install Java 21 (Ubuntu/Debian)
sudo apt install default-jdk

# Install Java 21 (macOS)
brew install openjdk@21

# Download from Adoptium (cross-platform)
# https://adoptium.net/temurin/releases/

Permission denied errors:

# Fix permissions for user installation
chmod +x ~/.boxlang/bin/*

# Or use system installation
sudo install-boxlang --system

Module installation fails:

# Check network connectivity
curl -I https://forgebox.io

# Clear module cache
rm -rf ~/.boxlang/modules/.cache

# Install with verbose output
install-bx-module bx-orm --verbose

Getting Help

# Command-specific help
install-boxlang --help
install-bx-module --help
bvm help

# Health check (BVM only)
bvm doctor

# Verbose output for debugging
install-boxlang --verbose
install-bx-module --verbose

📚 Resources

Documentation

• 📖 Official Documentation
• 🚀 Getting Started Guide
• 📋 Language Reference
• 🔧 Module Development

Community

• 💬 Discord Community
• 📧 Mailing List
• 🐛 Issue Tracker
• 💡 Feature Requests

Examples

• 🧑‍💻 Interactive Playground
• 📁 Sample Applications
• 🎓 Tutorials

Testing

Help test new features and releases:

# Install snapshot for testing
bvm install snapshot
bvm use snapshot

# Report any issues found

📄 License

This project is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.

🆘 Support

Community Support (Free)

• 🌐 Website: https://boxlang.io
• 📖 Documentation: https://boxlang.ortusbooks.com
• 💾 GitHub: https://github.com/ortus-boxlang/boxlang
• 💬 Community: https://community.ortussolutions.com/
• 🧑‍💻 Try: https://try.boxlang.io
• 📧 Mailing List: https://newsletter.boxlang.io

Professional Support

• 🫶 Enterprise Support: https://boxlang.io/plans
• 🎓 Training: https://learn.boxlang.io
• 🔧 Consulting: https://www.ortussolutions.com/services/development
• 📞 Priority Support: Available with enterprise plans

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