Install Clojure

Here's a quick, straightforward way to install Clojure on Linux or MacOS.

Install Java

First, you need the JDK. You can get that in a lot of ways. It's nice to have a utility to help you manager versions of the Java JDK. asdf is such a version manager -- and currently, the best.

Now with asdf, you can install the JDK. List what's available with:

asdf list all java

Then choose one to install, such as:

asdf install java openjdk-17.0.2
``

Now mark your project to use it:

asdf local java openjdk-17.0.2


## Install Clojure on Linux

The linux install requires downloading the installer script. This differs by version. Go to the [official install instructions](https://clojure.org/guides/install_clojure#_linux_instructions) for the latest url. As of this writing, it's:

curl -L -O https://github.com/clojure/brew-install/releases/latest/download/linux-install.shchmod +x linux-install.shsudo ./linux-install.sh


## Install Clojure on MacOS

If you're on Mac, you probably have [brew](https://brew.sh/) installed. If not, get that. Then use brew to install Clojure:

brew install clojure/tools/clojure


## Try it out

Now you should be able to start up a Clojure REPL with:

$ clojure

Clojure 1.11.1user=> (+ 1 1)2


Installed. Now go and wrap your life in parens.

## Bonus: clj command

If you try to run the `clj` command (instead of `clojure`), you might get this error:

Please install rlwrap for command editing or use "clojure" instead.


To install `rlwrap`, run:

sudo apt install rlwrap

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