This guide will focus on the command-line Mercurial client hg, but there are GUI-based Mercurial clients available for many platforms. Here is a list of other Mercurial clients.
$ sudo apt-get install mercurial
or
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mercurial-ppa/releases $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install mercurial
That way, you will install the latest stable version of Mercurial and such version will be updated on an automatic basis.
More info: Mercurial PPA Packagers: Releases
# yum install mercurial
A simple Mercurial installer is available on the Mercurial web site. Download and open this file, once unzipped you'll find a folder with a Mercurial .mpkg file, double click this file and follow the instructions to install.
Developers may find it preferable to use MacPorts to install Mercurial. While more complicated for a simple install, having MacPorts makes it easier to install additional packages that you may find useful, such as Mercurial's Keyring Extension for simple password management or other developer tools for working with the test suites, etc. If you choose to go this route, do not install from the installer above and follow the instructions below instead, otherwise skip to “Configuring Mercurial for use with W3C specs”.
sudo port selfupdate
You may be prompted to enter your password (as with any “sudo” command).
If you get an error message like:
sudo: port: command not found
Then you haven't successfully installed MacPorts. See above instructions to:
The MacPorts installer will run a program to determine if it can be installed.
If you get an error alert like:
<html><pre> +—————————————————-+
| MacPorts-2.0.3 can't be installed on this |
| computer. |
| Xcode is not installed, or was installed with UNIX |
| Development (10.5+) or Command Line Support |
| (10.4) deselected. |
| 1) |
+—————————————————-+ </pre></html>
Then go back and make sure you've installed XCode. If you have installed XCode, make sure you've updated it to the latest version. You may need to check the XCode page in the Apple Mac App store - if you see a button to “Update” or “Upgrade”, click it.
Now retry installing MacPorts again.
Now you should be ready to install Mercurial:
sudo port install mercurial
If you get an error message like:
sudo: port: command not found
Then open a *new* Terminal window and try the command again:
sudo port install mercurial
You will be asked for your “Password:” - enter it.
You should then see a bunch of messages like:
Computing dependencies for mercurial ---> Dependencies to be installed: curl-ca-bundle perl5 perl5.12 gdbm gettext expat libiconv gperf ncurses ncursesw python27 bzip2 db46 libedit openssl zlib python_select sqlite3 ---> Fetching archive for expat ---> Attempting to fetch expat-2.0.1_1.darwin_11.x86_64.tbz2 from http://packages.macports.org/expat ---> Fetching expat ---> Attempting to fetch expat-2.0.1.tar.gz from http://lil.fr.distfiles.macports.org/expat ---> Verifying checksum(s) for expat ---> Extracting expat ---> Configuring expat ---> Building expat ---> Staging expat into destroot ---> Installing expat @2.0.1_1 ---> Activating expat @2.0.1_1 ---> Cleaning expat ---> Fetching archive for gperf ...
In order to supply all the packages Mercurial depends on, MacPorts may install or upgrade a number of additional packages prior to installing Mercurial.
You may get an alert dialog that says something like:
<html><pre> +———————————————–+
| To open “javac,” you need a Java runtime. |
| Would you like to install one now? |
| (Not Now) 2) |
+———————————————–+ </pre></html>
Click (Not Now).
Note: Mercurial DOES NOT depend on Java. No idea why MacPorts makes you jump through this hoop. Java is no longer distributed with OS X Lion by default, if you need to install it (which you shouldn't), it can be downloaded from here.
Avoid installing Java as it is the #1 source of exploits and commercially available exploit kits. See http://tantek.com/2010/300/b1/disable-java-now for details/citations.
After clicking (Not Now), you might also get messages like this:
To make python 2.7 the default (i.e. the version you get when you run
'python'), please run:
sudo port select --set python python27
This is not necessary unless you want to use the MacPorts Python 2.7 environment when invoking Python from the command line. Mercurial will automatically use the MacPorts Python 2.7 environment regardless of which Python version is in your path.
Note: Mercurial is a Python application. Although OS X has Python pre-instaled, MacPorts will install its own version of Python into /opt/local/bin so that it can manage dependencies between packages. This will not interfere with your normal Python installation. Currently, on OS X Mercurial will use Python version 2.7. Note that if you install any extensions to Mercurial via MacPorts, you'll need to use the py27- version of the extension.
Congratulations, you've installed the command-line hg tool on your Mac!
Verify this with the command line:
hg --version
You should see something like:
Mercurial Distributed SCM (version 3.2) (see http://mercurial.selenic.com for more information)
As long as the version number you see is 2.1 or higher, you have a new enough version of Mercurial.
Mercurial updates frequently, you can upgrade to the latest version of Mercurial at any time by entering the following commands:
sudo port selfupdate
You might be asked for your “Password:” again here to sudo. Enter it and press return.
You should then see messages like:
---> Updating MacPorts base sources using rsync MacPorts base version 2.0.3 installed, MacPorts base version 2.0.3 downloaded. ---> Updating the ports tree ---> MacPorts base is already the latest version The ports tree has been updated. To upgrade your installed ports, you should run port upgrade outdated
Ignore it (unless you want to upgrade all the packages installed on your system by MacPorts).
Now do:
sudo port upgrade mercurial
If you already have the latest version of Mercurial, you should not get any messages, just another terminal prompt. If a newer version of Mercurial, or any other packages it depends on, is available, you will see installation messages similar to what you saw during the initial install, but perhaps “cleaning” a previous version:
---> Computing dependencies for mercurial ---> Fetching archive for mercurial ---> Attempting to fetch mercurial-2.2.1_0.darwin_11.x86_64.tbz2 from http://packages.macports.org/mercurial ---> Fetching distfiles for mercurial ---> Attempting to fetch mercurial-2.2.1.tar.gz from http://distfiles.macports.org/mercurial ---> Verifying checksum(s) for mercurial ---> Extracting mercurial ---> Applying patches to mercurial ---> Configuring mercurial ---> Building mercurial ---> Staging mercurial into destroot ---> Installing mercurial @2.2.1_0 ---> Cleaning mercurial ---> Computing dependencies for mercurial ---> Deactivating mercurial @2.0.1_0 ---> Cleaning mercurial ---> Activating mercurial @2.2.1_0 ---> Cleaning mercurial ---> Updating database of binaries: 100.0% ---> Scanning binaries for linking errors: 100.0% ---> No broken files found.
If newer packages are installed, you can remove the old ones that are no longer needed by entering:
sudo port uninstall outdated
You might see some packages deactivated/cleaned/uninstalled like this:
---> Deactivating cvs @1.11.23_0 ---> Cleaning cvs ---> Uninstalling cvs @1.11.23_0 ---> Cleaning cvs
Check the version of Mercurial you now have with the command line:
hg --version
You should see something like:
Mercurial Distributed SCM (version 2.2.1) (see http://mercurial.selenic.com for more information)
As long as the version number you see is 2.1 or higher, you have a new enough version of Mercurial.
Continue with Setting up Mercurial Preferences.