Install Choral

Note on prerequisites. Choral requires Java 14 or later. Choral can be installed in Linux, macOS, and Windows (through WSL) OSes.

Default directories (fastest method)

To install Choral, paste and run the following command in a terminal.

bash -c "$(curl -fsSl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/choral-lang/choral/master/scripts/install.sh)"

By default, this will install the choral executable launcher in /usr/local/bin and the Choral libraries in /usr/local/lib/choral.

You might need to run the command above using sudo if your user cannot write in /usr/local (or you can set custom directories, see below).

Custom directories

If you want to choose different installation directories, just pass them as arguments to the install script as follows.

bash -c "$(curl -fsSl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/choral-lang/choral/master/scripts/install.sh)" -s -l /path/to/store/the/launcher -ch /path/to/store/choral/libraries

For example, to install the choral launcher in ~/bin and the Choral libraries in ~/bin/choral-dist, use the following.

bash -c "$(curl -fsSl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/choral-lang/choral/master/scripts/install.sh)" -s -l ~/bin -ch ~/bin/choral-dist

Manual installation

To manually install Choral, follow the steps below:

  • download the latest release from the Github repository;
  • unzip the ZIP archive, which will give you the subdirectories launchers and dist;
  • move all files inside launchers to a directory in your $PATH;
  • set the environment variable CHORAL_HOME to a directory of your choice (this is the directory where we will install the Choral libraries);
  • move all files (and subdirectories) inside dist to the directory pointed at by CHORAL_HOME.

Choral commands

Choral version

You should be able to check Choral’s version by running the following command.

$ choral --version
Choral 0.1 (C) 2020 the Choral team

Command line help

To list all the options supported by the compiler, you can choral without any argument.

$ choral
Usage: choral [-hqvV] [--debug] [--verbosity=<LEVEL>] [COMMAND]

Description:
A compiler for the Choral programming language.
https://choral-lang.org/

Options:
      --verbosity=<LEVEL>   Verbosity level: ERRORS, WARNINGS, INFO, DEBUG.
  -v, --verbose             Enable information messages.
  -q, --quiet               Disable all messages except errors.
      --debug               Enable debug messages.
  -h, --help                Show this help message and exit.
  -V, --version             Print version information and exit.

Commands:
  check, c                  Check correctness and projectability.
  endpoint-projection, epp  Generate local code by projecting a choreography at
                              a set of roles.
  headers, chh              Generate choral header files (.chh).
  generate-completion       Generate bash/zsh completion script for choral.

Some key commands

For each command, you can get help by invoking the -h or --help option. For example, to get help on how to use the epp command (for compiling Choral code to Java), invoke choral epp -h.

Here’s a brief overview of the main commands.

  • Use choral epp ChoralName to compile the Choral interface or class ChoralName to Java.
  • Use choral check ChoralName to check that the Choral interface or class ChoralName is well-typed and can be compiled.

IDE support

We do not have an easy-to-install IDE plugin for Choral yet. (See? We’re really a prototype!)

If you’re interested in making one: the first line of output messages printed by choral check follows the same format of javac, so it should be possible to adapt an existing Java plugin. Here is an output example.

ConsumeItems.ch:11:6: error: Cannot resolve method 'select(choral.example.ConsumeItems.ConsumeChoice@(B))' in 'choral.channels.DiChannel@(A,B)<java.lang.Integer>'.

   10 |     if ( it.hasNext() ){
   11 |       ch.< ConsumeChoice >select( ConsumeChoice@B.AGAIN );
      | ---------^
   12 |       it.next() >> ch::< Integer > com >> consumer::accept;