github.com/aspring/packer@v0.8.1-0.20150629211158-9db281ac0f89/website/source/docs/installation.html.markdown (about) 1 --- 2 layout: "docs" 3 page_title: "Install Packer" 4 description: |- 5 Packer must first be installed on the machine you want to run it on. To make installation easy, Packer is distributed as a binary package for all supported platforms and architectures. This page will not cover how to compile Packer from source, as that is covered in the README and is only recommended for advanced users. 6 --- 7 8 # Install Packer 9 10 Packer must first be installed on the machine you want to run it on. 11 To make installation easy, Packer is distributed as a [binary package](/downloads.html) 12 for all supported platforms and architectures. This page will not cover how 13 to compile Packer from source, as that is covered in the 14 [README](https://github.com/mitchellh/packer/blob/master/README.md) and is only 15 recommended for advanced users. 16 17 ## Installing Packer 18 19 To install packer, first find the [appropriate package](/downloads.html) 20 for your system and download it. Packer is packaged as a "zip" file. 21 22 Next, unzip the downloaded package into a directory where Packer will be 23 installed. On Unix systems, `~/packer` or `/usr/local/packer` is generally good, 24 depending on whether you want to restrict the install to just your user 25 or install it system-wide. On Windows systems, you can put it wherever you'd 26 like. 27 28 After unzipping the package, the directory should contain a set of binary 29 programs, such as `packer`, `packer-build-amazon-ebs`, etc. The final step 30 to installation is to make sure the directory you installed Packer to 31 is on the PATH. See [this page](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14637979/how-to-permanently-set-path-on-linux) 32 for instructions on setting the PATH on Linux and Mac. 33 [This page](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1618280/where-can-i-set-path-to-make-exe-on-windows) 34 contains instructions for setting the PATH on Windows. 35 36 ## Verifying the Installation 37 38 After installing Packer, verify the installation worked by opening 39 a new command prompt or console, and checking that `packer` is available: 40 41 ```text 42 $ packer 43 usage: packer [--version] [--help] <command> [<args>] 44 45 Available commands are: 46 build build image(s) from template 47 fix fixes templates from old versions of packer 48 inspect see components of a template 49 validate check that a template is valid 50 ``` 51 52 If you get an error that `packer` could not be found, then your PATH 53 environmental variable was not setup properly. Please go back and ensure 54 that your PATH variable contains the directory which has Packer installed. 55 56 Otherwise, Packer is installed and you're ready to go! 57 58 ## Alternative Installation Methods 59 60 Installation from binary packages is currently the only officially supported 61 installation method. The binary packages are guaranteed to be the latest 62 available version and match the proper checksums. However, in addition to 63 the official binaries, there are other unofficial 3rd party methods of 64 installation managed by the Packer community: 65 66 ### Homebrew 67 68 If you're using OS X and [Homebrew](http://brew.sh), you can install Packer: 69 70 ```text 71 $ brew install packer 72 ``` 73 74 ### Chocolatey 75 76 If you're using Windows and [Chocolatey](http://chocolatey.org), you can install Packer from 77 Windows command line (cmd). Remember that this is updated by a 3rd party, so 78 it may not be the latest available version. 79 80 ```text 81 $ choco install packer 82 ```