2. Installing And Running Alef

You do not need the private Alef source repository. Public usage starts with a

binary named alef.

Install On macOS Apple Silicon

Download the current public binary:


curl -L -o alef \
  https://github.com/mturac/aleflang-docs/releases/latest/download/alef-darwin-arm64
chmod +x ./alef
./alef --version

Expected output starts with:


Alef VM v1.0.0-rc.1

Move it onto your PATH:


mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
mv ./alef ~/.local/bin/alef

Open a new terminal or make sure ~/.local/bin is on your PATH, then check:


alef --version

Make a folder for learning:


mkdir alef-learning
cd alef-learning

Create main.alef:


fn main() {
    println("hello, Alef")
}

Run it:


alef run main.alef

Expected output:


hello, Alef


alef help
alef version
alef run main.alef
alef repl
alef test

The shorter form also works:


alef main.alef

This book uses alef run main.alef because it is explicit.

If the command is not found, your terminal cannot find the binary:


command not found: alef

Fix it by running the binary directly:


./alef --version

or by moving it onto your PATH.

If the file is missing, check the current folder:

ls

You should see main.alef.

Public example repositories should contain .alef programs, fixtures, smoke

scripts, and README instructions. They should not require access to the private

Alef compiler or runtime source tree.

Example repos should accept ALEF_BIN:


ALEF_BIN=/path/to/alef bash scripts/smoke.sh

If ALEF_BIN is not set, examples should fall back to alef from PATH.

After downloading and placing the alef binary, ad-hoc sign it so macOS

Taskgated does not block execution:


chmod +x ./alef
codesign --force -s - ./alef
./alef --version