¶Installation

¶Download a release (recommended)

Pre-built downloads are published for each release on the Releases page.

¶DMG (easiest)

Download e-<version>-universal.dmg, open it, and drag e.app into Applications. It runs on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.

The app is ad-hoc signed, so on first launch macOS may say it's from an "unidentified developer" — right-click the app → Open to allow it.

¶Binary archive

For a CLI install, download the archive for your platform:

• macOS — Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3): e-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.gz
• macOS — Intel: e-x86_64-apple-darwin.tar.gz
• Linux — x86_64: e-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz
• Linux — arm64: e-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz

shasum -a 256 -c e-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.gz.sha256   # optional
tar xzf e-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.gz
mv e /usr/local/bin/e

On Linux you'll also need the runtime libraries listed under Linux build dependencies (Wayland/X11, Vulkan).

Once installed, e keeps itself up to date — see Updating.

¶Build from source

¶Requirements

• Rust 1.87 or newer
• A C toolchain (for tree-sitter grammars)
• Optional: language servers on your PATH (see Languages & LSP)

¶Linux build dependencies

On Debian/Ubuntu, install the system libraries Floem (winit + Vulkan/wgpu), the native file dialog, the MySQL driver and the Secret Service client need:

sudo apt-get install \
  clang pkg-config libssl-dev libwayland-dev libxkbcommon-x11-dev \
  libvulkan-dev libxcb-shape0-dev libxcb-xfixes0-dev libdbus-1-dev

libdbus-1-dev is what lets e store database passwords in your desktop's keyring (GNOME Keyring, KWallet — anything implementing the Secret Service API) instead of in a file. If no such service is running at runtime, e keeps the secrets in ~/.config/e/databases.json instead, written 0600.

At runtime a working Vulkan driver is required (e.g. mesa-vulkan-drivers).

¶Build

git clone https://github.com/kwhorne/e
cd e
cargo build --release

The binary is produced at target/release/e.

¶Run

# Open a directory as a workspace
cargo run --release -- path/to/project

# Or open a single file
cargo run --release -- path/to/file.rs

¶macOS app bundle

To build and launch a proper .app bundle (so the window comes to the front):

./scripts/run.sh path/to/project

To produce a distributable .app bundle:

./scripts/bundle-macos.sh

¶Build a DMG installer

./scripts/bundle-dmg.sh             # host architecture
./scripts/bundle-dmg.sh --universal # universal (arm64 + x86_64)

This produces dist/e-<version>.dmg containing e.app and an Applications symlink — open it and drag the app into Applications.

If no Developer ID certificate is available the app is ad-hoc signed, so on first launch macOS shows an "unidentified developer" prompt; right-click the app → Open to allow it.

¶Signed & notarized builds

bundle-dmg.sh and bundle-macos.sh sign automatically when a Developer ID Application identity is in your keychain (auto-detected, or set CODESIGN_IDENTITY). The DMG is then signed, notarized, and stapled.

Notarization needs credentials. Store them once in the keychain (the app-specific password never touches disk):

xcrun notarytool store-credentials e-notary \
  --apple-id you@example.com --team-id TEAMID --password <app-specific-password>

Then just build — it signs, notarizes with the e-notary profile, and staples:

./scripts/bundle-dmg.sh --universal

¶Signing in CI

The release workflow signs and notarizes the universal DMG when these repository secrets are set (otherwise it falls back to an ad-hoc DMG):

Export the certificate from Keychain Access → your Developer ID Application → right-click → Export as a .p12, then base64-encode it for the secret.

¶Language servers

e uses the Language Server Protocol for rich language features. Install the servers for the languages you use and make sure they are on your PATH:

See Languages & LSP for details.