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                <ol class="chapter"><li class="chapter-item expanded affix "><a href="title-page.html">Helix</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="install.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">1.</strong> Installation</a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="package-managers.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">1.1.</strong> Package Managers</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="building-from-source.html" class="active"><strong aria-hidden="true">1.2.</strong> Building from source</a></li></ol></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="usage.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">2.</strong> Usage</a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="registers.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">2.1.</strong> Registers</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="surround.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">2.2.</strong> Surround</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="textobjects.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">2.3.</strong> Textobjects</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="syntax-aware-motions.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">2.4.</strong> Syntax aware motions</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="pickers.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">2.5.</strong> Pickers</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="keymap.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">2.6.</strong> Keymap</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="commands.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">2.7.</strong> Commands</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="lang-support.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">2.8.</strong> Language support</a></li></ol></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="from-vim.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">3.</strong> Migrating from Vim</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="configuration.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">4.</strong> Configuration</a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="editor.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">4.1.</strong> Editor</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="themes.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">4.2.</strong> Themes</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="remapping.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">4.3.</strong> Key remapping</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="languages.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">4.4.</strong> Languages</a></li></ol></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="guides/index.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">5.</strong> Guides</a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="guides/adding_languages.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">5.1.</strong> Adding languages</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="guides/textobject.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">5.2.</strong> Adding textobject queries</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="guides/indent.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">5.3.</strong> Adding indent queries</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="guides/injection.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">5.4.</strong> Adding injection queries</a></li></ol></li></ol>
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                        <h2 id="building-from-source"><a class="header" href="#building-from-source">Building from source</a></h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="#configuring-helixs-runtime-files">Configuring Helix's runtime files</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#linux-and-macos">Linux and macOS</a></li>
<li><a href="#windows">Windows</a></li>
<li><a href="#multiple-runtime-directories">Multiple runtime directories</a></li>
<li><a href="#note-to-packagers">Note to packagers</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#validating-the-installation">Validating the installation</a></li>
<li><a href="#configure-the-desktop-shortcut">Configure the desktop shortcut</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Requirements:</p>
<p>Clone the Helix GitHub repository into a directory of your choice. The
examples in this documentation assume installation into either <code>~/src/</code> on
Linux and macOS, or <code>%userprofile%\src\</code> on Windows.</p>
<ul>
<li>The <a href="https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install">Rust toolchain</a></li>
<li>The <a href="https://git-scm.com/">Git version control system</a></li>
<li>A C++14 compatible compiler to build the tree-sitter grammars, for example GCC or Clang</li>
</ul>
<p>If you are using the <code>musl-libc</code> standard library instead of <code>glibc</code> the following environment variable must be set during the build to ensure tree-sitter grammars can be loaded correctly:</p>
<pre><code class="language-sh">RUSTFLAGS="-C target-feature=-crt-static"
</code></pre>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Clone the repository:</p>
<pre><code class="language-sh">git clone https://github.com/helix-editor/helix
cd helix
</code></pre>
</li>
<li>
<p>Compile from source:</p>
<pre><code class="language-sh">cargo install --path helix-term --locked
</code></pre>
<p>This command will create the <code>hx</code> executable and construct the tree-sitter
grammars in the local <code>runtime</code> folder.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<blockquote>
<p>💡 If you do not want to fetch or build grammars, set an environment variable <code>HELIX_DISABLE_AUTO_GRAMMAR_BUILD</code></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>💡 Tree-sitter grammars can be fetched and compiled if not pre-packaged. Fetch
grammars with <code>hx --grammar fetch</code> and compile them with
<code>hx --grammar build</code>. This will install them in
the <code>runtime</code> directory within the user's helix config directory (more
<a href="#multiple-runtime-directories">details below</a>).</p>
</blockquote>
<h3 id="configuring-helixs-runtime-files"><a class="header" href="#configuring-helixs-runtime-files">Configuring Helix's runtime files</a></h3>
<h4 id="linux-and-macos"><a class="header" href="#linux-and-macos">Linux and macOS</a></h4>
<p>The <strong>runtime</strong> directory is one below the Helix source, so either export a
<code>HELIX_RUNTIME</code> environment variable to point to that directory and add it to
your <code>~/.bashrc</code> or equivalent:</p>
<pre><code class="language-sh">export HELIX_RUNTIME=~/src/helix/runtime
</code></pre>
<p>Or, create a symbolic link:</p>
<pre><code class="language-sh">ln -Ts $PWD/runtime ~/.config/helix/runtime
</code></pre>
<p>If the above command fails to create a symbolic link because the file exists either move <code>~/.config/helix/runtime</code> to a new location or delete it, then run the symlink command above again.</p>
<h4 id="windows"><a class="header" href="#windows">Windows</a></h4>
<p>Either set the <code>HELIX_RUNTIME</code> environment variable to point to the runtime files using the Windows setting (search for
<code>Edit environment variables for your account</code>) or use the <code>setx</code> command in
Cmd:</p>
<pre><code class="language-sh">setx HELIX_RUNTIME "%userprofile%\source\repos\helix\runtime"
</code></pre>
<blockquote>
<p>💡 <code>%userprofile%</code> resolves to your user directory like
<code>C:\Users\Your-Name\</code> for example.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Or, create a symlink in <code>%appdata%\helix\</code> that links to the source code directory:</p>
<div class="table-wrapper"><table><thead><tr><th>Method</th><th>Command</th></tr></thead><tbody>
<tr><td>PowerShell</td><td><code>New-Item -ItemType Junction -Target "runtime" -Path "$Env:AppData\helix\runtime"</code></td></tr>
<tr><td>Cmd</td><td><code>cd %appdata%\helix</code> <br/> <code>mklink /D runtime "%userprofile%\src\helix\runtime"</code></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<blockquote>
<p>💡 On Windows, creating a symbolic link may require running PowerShell or
Cmd as an administrator.</p>
</blockquote>
<h4 id="multiple-runtime-directories"><a class="header" href="#multiple-runtime-directories">Multiple runtime directories</a></h4>
<p>When Helix finds multiple runtime directories it will search through them for files in the
following order:</p>
<ol>
<li><code>runtime/</code> sibling directory to <code>$CARGO_MANIFEST_DIR</code> directory (this is intended for
developing and testing helix only).</li>
<li><code>runtime/</code> subdirectory of OS-dependent helix user config directory.</li>
<li><code>$HELIX_RUNTIME</code></li>
<li>Distribution-specific fallback directory (set at compile time—not run time—
with the <code>HELIX_DEFAULT_RUNTIME</code> environment variable)</li>
<li><code>runtime/</code> subdirectory of path to Helix executable.</li>
</ol>
<p>This order also sets the priority for selecting which file will be used if multiple runtime
directories have files with the same name.</p>
<h4 id="note-to-packagers"><a class="header" href="#note-to-packagers">Note to packagers</a></h4>
<p>If you are making a package of Helix for end users, to provide a good out of
the box experience, you should set the <code>HELIX_DEFAULT_RUNTIME</code> environment
variable at build time (before invoking <code>cargo build</code>) to a directory which
will store the final runtime files after installation. For example, say you want
to package the runtime into <code>/usr/lib/helix/runtime</code>. The rough steps a build
script could follow are:</p>
<ol>
<li><code>export HELIX_DEFAULT_RUNTIME=/usr/lib/helix/runtime</code></li>
<li><code>cargo build --profile opt --locked --path helix-term</code></li>
<li><code>cp -r runtime $BUILD_DIR/usr/lib/helix/</code></li>
<li><code>cp target/opt/hx $BUILD_DIR/usr/bin/hx</code></li>
</ol>
<p>This way the resulting <code>hx</code> binary will always look for its runtime directory in
<code>/usr/lib/helix/runtime</code> if the user has no custom runtime in <code>~/.config/helix</code>
or <code>HELIX_RUNTIME</code>.</p>
<h3 id="validating-the-installation"><a class="header" href="#validating-the-installation">Validating the installation</a></h3>
<p>To make sure everything is set up as expected you should run the Helix health
check:</p>
<pre><code class="language-sh">hx --health
</code></pre>
<p>For more information on the health check results refer to
<a href="https://github.com/helix-editor/helix/wiki/Healthcheck">Health check</a>.</p>
<h3 id="configure-the-desktop-shortcut"><a class="header" href="#configure-the-desktop-shortcut">Configure the desktop shortcut</a></h3>
<p>If your desktop environment supports the
<a href="https://specifications.freedesktop.org/menu-spec/menu-spec-latest.html">XDG desktop menu</a>
you can configure Helix to show up in the application menu by copying the
provided <code>.desktop</code> and icon files to their correct folders:</p>
<pre><code class="language-sh">cp contrib/Helix.desktop ~/.local/share/applications
cp contrib/helix.png ~/.icons # or ~/.local/share/icons
</code></pre>
<p>It is recommended to convert the links in the <code>.desktop</code> file to absolute paths to avoid potential problems:</p>
<pre><code class="language-sh">sed -i -e "s|Exec=hx %F|Exec=$(readlink -f ~/.cargo/bin/hx) %F|g" \
  -e "s|Icon=helix|Icon=$(readlink -f ~/.icons/helix.png)|g" ~/.local/share/applications/Helix.desktop
</code></pre>
<p>To use another terminal than the system default, you can modify the <code>.desktop</code>
file. For example, to use <code>kitty</code>:</p>
<pre><code class="language-sh">sed -i "s|Exec=hx %F|Exec=kitty hx %F|g" ~/.local/share/applications/Helix.desktop
sed -i "s|Terminal=true|Terminal=false|g" ~/.local/share/applications/Helix.desktop
</code></pre>

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