Provided by: opam-doc_2.1.2-1_all 
NAME
opam-install - Install a list of packages.
SYNOPSIS
opam install [OPTION]... [PACKAGES]...
DESCRIPTION
This command installs one or more packages inside the currently selected switch (see opam
switch). Once installed, you can remove packages with opam remove, upgrade them with opam
upgrade, and list them with opam list. See opam pin as well to manage package versions,
reroute existing packages or add packages that are not defined in the repositories.
All required dependencies of the selected packages will be installed first. Any already
installed packages having dependencies, or optional dependencies to the changed packages
will be recompiled. The proposed solution may also imply removing incompatible or
conflicting packages.
If paths are provided as argument instead of packages, they are assumed to point to either
project source directories containing one or more package definitions (opam files), or
directly to opam files. Then the corresponding packages will be pinned to their local
directory and installed (unless --deps-only was specified).
ARGUMENTS
PACKAGES
List of package names, with an optional version or constraint, e.g `pkg', `pkg.1.0' or
`pkg>=0.5' ; or files or directory names containing package description, with explicit
directory (e.g. `./foo.opam' or `.')
OPTIONS
--assume-built
For use on locally-pinned packages: assume they have already been correctly built, and
only run their installation instructions, directly from their source directory. This
skips the build instructions and can be useful to install packages that are being
worked on. Implies --inplace-build. No locally-pinned packages will be skipped.
--check
Exit with 0 if all the dependencies of PACKAGES are already installed. If not, output
the names of the missing dependencies to stdout, and exits with 1.
--depext-only
Resolves the package installation normally, but only installs the required system
dependencies, without affecting the opam switch state or installing opam packages.
--deps-only
Install all its dependencies, but don't actually install the package.
--destdir=DIR
Copy the files installed by the given package within the current opam switch below the
prefix DIR, respecting their hierarchy, after installation. Caution, calling this can
overwrite, but never remove files, even if they were installed by a previous use of
--destdir, e.g. on a previous version of the same package. See opam remove --destdir
to revert.
--download-only
Fetch the sources of the packages, but don't build or install anything.
--ignore-conflicts
Used with --deps-only, ignores conflicts of given package
-j JOBS, --jobs=JOBS
Set the maximal number of concurrent jobs to use. The default value is calculated from
the number of cores. You can also set it using the $OPAMJOBS environment variable.
--no
Answer no to all opam yes/no questions without prompting. See also --confirm-level.
This is equivalent to setting $OPAMNO to "true".
--restore
Attempt to restore packages that were marked for installation but have been removed
due to errors
--set-root
Mark given packages as installed roots. This is the default for newly
manually-installed packages.
--unset-root
Mark given packages as "installed automatically".
-y, --yes
Answer yes to all opam yes/no questions without prompting. See also --confirm-level.
This is equivalent to setting $OPAMYES to "true".
PACKAGE BUILD OPTIONS
--assume-depexts
Skip the installation step for any missing system packages, and attempt to proceed
with compilation of the opam packages anyway. If the installation is successful, opam
won't prompt again about these system packages. Only meaningful if external dependency
handling is enabled.
-b, --keep-build-dir
Keep the build directories after compiling packages. This is equivalent to setting
$OPAMKEEPBUILDDIR to "true".
--build-doc
Removed in 2.1, use --with-doc instead.
--build-test
Removed in 2.1, use --with-test instead.
-d, --with-doc
Build the package documentation. This only affects packages listed on the
command-line. This is equivalent to setting $OPAMWITHDOC (or the deprecated
$OPAMBUILDDOC) to "true".
--dry-run
Simulate the command, but don't actually perform any changes. This also can be set
with environment variable $OPAMDEBUG.
--fake
This option registers the actions into the opam database, without actually performing
them. WARNING: This option is dangerous and likely to break your opam environment. You
probably want --dry-run. You've been warned.
--ignore-constraints-on[=PACKAGES] (default=)
Forces opam to ignore version constraints on all dependencies to the listed packages.
This can be used to test compatibility, but expect builds to break when using this.
Note that version constraints on optional dependencies and conflicts are unaffected.
This is equivalent to setting $OPAMIGNORECONSTRAINTS.
--inplace-build
When compiling a package which has its source bound to a local directory, process the
build and install actions directly in that directory, rather than in a clean copy
handled by opam. This only affects packages that are explicitly listed on the
command-line. This is equivalent to setting $OPAMINPLACEBUILD to "true".
--lock-suffix=SUFFIX (absent=locked)
Set locked files suffix to SUFFIX.
--locked
In commands that use opam files found from pinned sources, if a variant of the file
with an added .locked extension is found (e.g. foo.opam.locked besides foo.opam), that
will be used instead. This is typically useful to offer a more specific set of
dependencies and reproduce similar build contexts, hence the name. The lockoption can
be used to generate such files, based on the versions of the dependencies currently
installed on the host. This is equivalent to setting the $OPAMLOCKED environment
variable. Note that this option doesn't generally affect already pinned packages.
-m MAKE, --make=MAKE
Removed in 2.1, use opam config set[-global] make MAKE instead.
--no-checksums
Do not verify the checksum of downloaded archives.This is equivalent to setting
$OPAMNOCHECKSUMS to "true".
--no-depexts
Temporarily disables handling of external dependencies. This can be used if a package
is not available on your system package manager, but you installed the required
dependency by hand. Implies --assume-depexts, and stores the exceptions upon success
as well.
--require-checksums
Reject the installation of packages that don't provide a checksum for the upstream
archives. This is equivalent to setting $OPAMREQUIRECHECKSUMS to "true".
--reuse-build-dir
Reuse existing build directories (kept by using --keep-build-dir), instead of
compiling from a fresh clone of the source. This can be faster, but also lead to
failures if the build systems of the packages don't handle upgrades of dependencies
well. This is equivalent to setting $OPAMREUSEBUILDDIR to "true".
--show-actions
Call the solver and display the actions. Don't perform any changes. This is equivalent
to setting $OPAMSHOW.
--skip-updates
When running an install, upgrade or reinstall on source-pinned packages, they are
normally updated from their origin first. This flag disables that behaviour and will
keep them to their version in cache. This is equivalent to setting $OPAMSKIPUPDATE.
-t, --with-test
Build and run the package unit-tests. This only affects packages listed on the
command-line. This is equivalent to setting $OPAMWITHTEST (or the deprecated
$OPAMBUILDTEST) to "true".
--unlock-base
Removed in 2.1, use --update-invariant instead.
--update-invariant
Allow changes to the packages set as switch base (typically, the main compiler). Use
with caution. This is equivalent to setting the $OPAMUNLOCKBASE environment variable
COMMON OPTIONS
These options are common to all commands.
--best-effort
Don't fail if all requested packages can't be installed: try to install as many as
possible. Note that not all external solvers may support this option (recent versions
of aspcud or mccs should). This is equivalent to setting $OPAMBESTEFFORT environment
variable.
--cli=MAJOR.MINOR (absent=2.1)
Use the command-line interface syntax and semantics of MAJOR.MINOR. Intended for any
persistent use of opam (scripts, blog posts, etc.), any version of opam in the same
MAJOR series will behave as for the specified MINOR release. The flag was not
available in opam 2.0, so to select the 2.0 CLI, set the OPAMCLI environment variable
to 2.0 instead of using this parameter.
--color=WHEN
Colorize the output. WHEN must be one of `always', `never' or `auto'.
--confirm-level=LEVEL
Confirmation level, LEVEL must be one of `ask', `no', `yes' or `unsafe-yes'. Can be
specified more than once. If --yes or --no are also given, the value of the last
--confirm-level is taken into account. This is equivalent to setting
$OPAMCONFIRMLEVEL`.
--criteria=CRITERIA
Specify user preferences for dependency solving for this run. Overrides both
$OPAMCRITERIA and $OPAMUPGRADECRITERIA. For details on the supported language, and the
external solvers available, see http://opam.ocaml.org/doc/External_solvers.html. A
general guide to using solver preferences can be found at
http://www.dicosmo.org/Articles/usercriteria.pdf.
--cudf=FILENAME
Debug option: Save the CUDF requests sent to the solver to FILENAME-<n>.cudf.
--debug
Print debug message to stderr. This is equivalent to setting $OPAMDEBUG to "true".
--debug-level=LEVEL
Like --debug, but allows specifying the debug level (--debug sets it to 1). Equivalent
to setting $OPAMDEBUG to a positive integer.
--git-version
Print the git version of opam, if set (i.e. you are using a development version), and
exit.
--help[=FMT] (default=auto)
Show this help in format FMT. The value FMT must be one of `auto', `pager', `groff' or
`plain'. With `auto', the format is `pager` or `plain' whenever the TERM env var is
`dumb' or undefined.
--ignore-pin-depends
Ignore extra pins required by packages that get pinned, either manually through opam
pin or through opam install DIR. This is equivalent to setting IGNOREPINDEPENDS=true.
--json=FILENAME
Save the results of the opam run in a computer-readable file. If the filename contains
the character `%', it will be replaced by an index that doesn't overwrite an existing
file. Similar to setting the $OPAMJSON variable.
--no-aspcud
Removed in 2.1.
--no-auto-upgrade
When configuring or updating a repository that is written for an earlier opam version
(1.2), opam internally converts it to the current format. This disables this
behaviour. Note that repositories should define their format version in a 'repo' file
at their root, or they will be assumed to be in the older format. It is, in any case,
preferable to upgrade the repositories manually using opam admin upgrade [--mirror
URL] when possible.
--no-self-upgrade
Opam will replace itself with a newer binary found at OPAMROOT/opam if present. This
disables this behaviour.
-q, --quiet
Disables --verbose.
--root=ROOT
Use ROOT as the current root path. This is equivalent to setting $OPAMROOT to ROOT.
--safe, --readonly
Make sure nothing will be automatically updated or rewritten. Useful for calling from
completion scripts, for example. Will fail whenever such an operation is needed ; also
avoids waiting for locks, skips interactive questions and overrides the $OPAMDEBUG
variable. This is equivalent to set environment variable $OPAMSAFE.
--solver=CMD
Specify the CUDF solver to use for resolving package installation problems. This is
either a predefined solver (this version of opam supports builtin-mccs+lp(),
builtin-mccs+glpk, builtin-dummy-z3-solver, builtin-dummy-0install-solver, aspcud,
mccs, aspcud-old, packup), or a custom command that should contain the variables
%{input}%, %{output}%, %{criteria}%, and optionally %{timeout}%. This is equivalent to
setting $OPAMEXTERNALSOLVER.
--strict
Fail whenever an error is found in a package definition or a configuration file. The
default is to continue silently if possible.
--switch=SWITCH
Use SWITCH as the current compiler switch. This is equivalent to setting $OPAMSWITCH
to SWITCH.
--use-internal-solver
Disable any external solver, and use the built-in one (this requires that opam has
been compiled with a built-in solver). This is equivalent to setting $OPAMNOASPCUD or
$OPAMUSEINTERNALSOLVER.
-v, --verbose
Be more verbose. One -v shows all package commands, repeat to also display commands
called internally (e.g. tar, curl, patch etc.) Repeating n times is equivalent to
setting $OPAMVERBOSE to "n".
--version
Show version information.
-w, --working-dir
Whenever updating packages that are bound to a local, version-controlled directory,
update to the current working state of their source instead of the last committed
state, or the ref they are pointing to. As source directory is copied as it is, if it
isn't clean it may result on a opam build failure.This only affects packages
explicitly listed on the command-line.It can also be set with $OPAMWORKINGDIR.
ENVIRONMENT
Opam makes use of the environment variables listed here. Boolean variables should be set
to "0", "no", "false" or the empty string to disable, "1", "yes" or "true" to enable.
OPAMALLPARENS surround all filters with parenthesis.
OPAMASSUMEDEPEXTS see option `--assume-depexts'.
OPAMAUTOREMOVE see remove option `--auto-remove'.
OPAMBESTEFFORT see option `--best-effort'.
OPAMBESTEFFORTPREFIXCRITERIA sets the string that must be prepended to the criteria when
the `--best-effort' option is set, and is expected to maximise the `opam-query' property
in the solution.
OPAMBUILDDOC Removed in 2.1.
OPAMBUILDTEST Removed in 2.1.
OPAMCLI see option `--cli'.
OPAMCOLOR when set to always or never, sets a default value for the `--color' option.
OPAMCONFIRMLEVEL see option `--confirm-level`. OPAMCONFIRMLEVEL has priority over OPAMYES
and OPAMNO.
OPAMCRITERIA specifies user preferences for dependency solving. The default value depends
on the solver version, use `config report' to know the current setting. See also option
--criteria.
OPAMCUDFFILE save the cudf graph to file-actions-explicit.dot.
OPAMCUDFTRIM controls the filtering of unrelated packages during CUDF preprocessing.
OPAMCURL can be used to select a given 'curl' program. See OPAMFETCH for more options.
OPAMDEBUG see options `--debug' and `--debug-level'.
OPAMDEBUGSECTIONS if set, limits debug messages to the space-separated list of sections.
Sections can optionally have a specific debug level (for example, CLIENT:2 or CLIENT
CUDF:2), but otherwise use `--debug-level'.
OPAMDIGDEPTH defines how aggressive the lookup for conflicts during CUDF preprocessing is.
OPAMDOWNLOADJOBS sets the maximum number of simultaneous downloads.
OPAMDROPWORKINGDIR overrides packages previously updated with --working-dir on update.
Without this variable set, opam would keep them unchanged unless explicitly named on the
command-line.
OPAMDRYRUN see option `--dry-run'.
OPAMEDITOR sets the editor to use for opam file editing, overrides $EDITOR and $VISUAL.
OPAMERRLOGLEN sets the number of log lines printed when a sub-process fails. 0 to print
all.
OPAMEXTERNALSOLVER see option `--solver'.
OPAMFAKE see option `--fake'.
OPAMFETCH specifies how to download files: either `wget', `curl' or a custom command where
variables %{url}%, %{out}%, %{retry}%, %{compress}% and %{checksum}% will be replaced.
Overrides the 'download-command' value from the main config file.
OPAMFIXUPCRITERIA same as OPAMUPGRADECRITERIA, but specific to fixup.
OPAMIGNORECONSTRAINTS see install option `--ignore-constraints-on'.
OPAMIGNOREPINDEPENDS see option `--ignore-pin-depends'.
OPAMINPLACEBUILD see option `--inplace-build'.
OPAMJOBS sets the maximum number of parallel workers to run.
OPAMJSON log json output to the given file (use character `%' to index the files).
OPAMKEEPBUILDDIR see install option `--keep-build-dir'.
OPAMKEEPLOGS tells opam to not remove some temporary command logs and some backups. This
skips some finalisers and may also help to get more reliable backtraces.
OPAMLOCKED combination of `--locked' and `--lock-suffix' options.
OPAMLOGS logdir sets log directory, default is a temporary directory in /tmp
OPAMMAKECMD set the system make command to use.
OPAMMERGEOUT merge process outputs, stderr on stdout.
OPAMNO answer no to any question asked, see options `--no` and `--confirm-level`. OPAMNO
is ignored if either OPAMCONFIRMLEVEL or OPAMYES is set.
OPAMNOAGGREGATE with `opam admin check', don't aggregate packages.
OPAMNOASPCUD Deprecated.
OPAMNOAUTOUPGRADE disables automatic internal upgrade of repositories in an earlier format
to the current one, on 'update' or 'init'.
OPAMNOCHECKSUMS enables option --no-checksums when available.
OPAMNODEPEXTS disables system dependencies handling, see option `--no-depexts'.
OPAMNOENVNOTICE Internal.
OPAMNOSELFUPGRADE see option `--no-self-upgrade'
OPAMPINKINDAUTO sets whether version control systems should be detected when pinning to a
local path. Enabled by default since 1.3.0.
OPAMPRECISETRACKING fine grain tracking of directories.
OPAMPREPRO set this to false to disable CUDF preprocessing. Less efficient, but might help
debugging solver issue.
OPAMREQUIRECHECKSUMS Enables option `--require-checksums' when available (e.g. for `opam
install').
OPAMRETRIES sets the number of tries before failing downloads.
OPAMREUSEBUILDDIR see option `--reuse-build-dir'.
OPAMROOT see option `--root'. This is automatically set by `opam env --root=DIR
--set-root'.
OPAMROOTISOK don't complain when running as root.
OPAMSAFE see option `--safe'.
OPAMSHOW see option `--show'.
OPAMSKIPUPDATE see option `--skip-updates'.
OPAMSKIPVERSIONCHECKS bypasses some version checks. Unsafe, for compatibility testing
only.
OPAMSOLVERALLOWSUBOPTIMAL (default `true') allows some solvers to still return a solution
when they reach timeout; while the solution remains assured to be consistent, there is no
guarantee in this case that it fits the expected optimisation criteria. If `true', opam
willcontinue with a warning, if `false' a timeout is an error. Currently only the
builtin-z3 backend handles this degraded case.
OPAMSOLVERTIMEOUT change the time allowance of the solver. Default is 60.0, set to 0 for
unlimited. Note that all solvers may not support this option.
OPAMSTATS display stats at the end of command.
OPAMSTATUSLINE display a dynamic status line showing what's currently going on on the
terminal. (one of one of `always', `never' or `auto')
OPAMSTRICT fail on inconsistencies (file reading, switch import, etc.).
OPAMSWITCH see option `--switch'. Automatically set by `opam env --switch=SWITCH
--set-switch'.
OPAMUNLOCKBASE see install option `--unlock-base'.
OPAMUPGRADECRITERIA specifies user preferences for dependency solving when performing an
upgrade. Overrides OPAMCRITERIA in upgrades if both are set. See also option --criteria.
OPAMUSEINTERNALSOLVER see option `--use-internal-solver'.
OPAMUSEOPENSSL force openssl use for hash computing.
OPAMUTF8 use UTF8 characters in output (one of one of `always', `never' or `auto'). By
default `auto', which is determined from the locale).
OPAMUTF8MSGS use extended UTF8 characters (camels) in opam messages. Implies OPAMUTF8.
This is set by default on OSX only.
OPAMVALIDATIONHOOK if set, uses the `%{hook%}' command to validate an opam repository
update.
OPAMVERBOSE see option `--verbose'.
OPAMVERSIONLAGPOWER do not use.
OPAMWITHDOC see install option `--with-doc'.
OPAMWITHTEST see install option `--with-test.
OPAMWORKINGDIR see option `--working-dir'.
OPAMYES see options `--yes' and `--confirm-level`. OPAMYES has has priority over OPAMNO
and is ignored if OPAMCONFIRMLEVEL is set.
OPAMVAR_var overrides the contents of the variable var when substituting `%{var}%` strings
in `opam` files.
OPAMVAR_package_var overrides the contents of the variable package:var when substituting
`%{package:var}%` strings in `opam` files.
CLI VERSION
All scripts and programmatic invocations of opam should use `--cli' in order to ensure
that they work seamlessly with future versions of the opam client. Additionally, blog
posts or other documentation can benefit, as it prevents information from becoming stale.
Although opam only supports roots (~/.opam/) for the current version, it does provide
backwards compatibility for its command-line interface.
Since CLI version support was only added in opam 2.1, use OPAMCLI to select 2.0 support
(as opam 2.0 will just ignore it), and `--cli=2.1' for 2.1 (or later) versions, since an
environment variable controlling the parsing of syntax is brittle. To this end, opam
displays a warning if OPAMCLI specifies a valid version other than 2.0, and also if
`--cli=2.0' is specified.
The command-line version is selected by using the `--cli' option or the OPAMCLI
environment variable. `--cli' may be specified morethan once, where the last instance
takes precedence. OPAMCLI is only inspected if `--cli' is not given.
EXIT STATUS
As an exception to the following, the `exec' command returns 127 if the command was not
found or couldn't be executed, and the command's exit value otherwise.
0 Success, or true for boolean queries.
1 False. Returned when a boolean return value is expected, e.g. when running with
--check, or for queries like opam lint.
2 Bad command-line arguments, or command-line arguments pointing to an invalid context
(e.g. file not following the expected format).
5 Not found. You requested something (package, version, repository, etc.) that couldn't
be found.
10 Aborted. The operation required confirmation, which wasn't given.
15 Could not acquire the locks required for the operation.
20 There is no solution to the user request. This can be caused by asking to install two
incompatible packages, for example.
30 Error in package definition, or other metadata files. Using --strict raises this error
more often.
31 Package script error. Some package operations were unsuccessful. This may be an error
in the packages or an incompatibility with your system. This can be a partial error.
40 Sync error. Could not fetch some remotes from the network. This can be a partial
error.
50 Configuration error. Opam or system configuration doesn't allow operation, and needs
fixing.
60 Solver failure. The solver failed to return a sound answer. It can be due to a broken
external solver, or an error in solver configuration.
99 Internal error. Something went wrong, likely due to a bug in opam itself.
130 User interrupt. SIGINT was received, generally due to the user pressing Ctrl-C.
FURTHER DOCUMENTATION
See https://opam.ocaml.org/doc.
AUTHORS
Vincent Bernardoff <vb@luminar.eu.org>
Raja Boujbel <raja.boujbel@ocamlpro.com>
Roberto Di Cosmo <roberto@dicosmo.org>
Thomas Gazagnaire <thomas@gazagnaire.org>
Louis Gesbert <louis.gesbert@ocamlpro.com>
Fabrice Le Fessant <Fabrice.Le_fessant@inria.fr>
Anil Madhavapeddy <anil@recoil.org>
Guillem Rieu <guillem.rieu@ocamlpro.com>
Ralf Treinen <ralf.treinen@pps.jussieu.fr>
Frederic Tuong <tuong@users.gforge.inria.fr>
BUGS
Check bug reports at https://github.com/ocaml/opam/issues.