Download and Install Chapel

From Source

To download and install Chapel from source, download chapel-2.5.0.tar.gz from GitHub, then unpack and build it as described in the Quickstart instructions.

With Spack

To get started with the Chapel Spack package:

  1. Install the Spack package manager on your system, if it isn’t already there.
  2. To customize the Chapel installation, use the variants of the Chapel Spack package as opposed to the normal CHPL_* environment variables. Most settings described in Chapel’s documentation can be set using variants of the Chapel Spack package.
  3. Install the Chapel package, specifying any variant desired. For example, to also install the chpldoc tool, use spack install chapel+chpldoc.

With Docker

To get started with the Chapel Docker image:

  1. Install Docker Engine on your system if it isn’t already.
  2. Get the Chapel image: docker pull chapel/chapel
  3. Follow the instructions on the Chapel Docker Hub page to compile and run some simple programs.

With Homebrew

Homebrew users can install a single-locale build of Chapel on Mac/Linux as follows:

  1. Make sure your brew is up-to-date: brew update
  2. Install the Chapel formula: brew install chapel
  3. Note that for a homebrew install, $CHPL_HOME can be determined by running chpl --print-chpl-home.
  4. If you’re not already familiar with Chapel, jump to the “Compile an exmaple program step in the Quickstart Instructions.

On HPE Systems

Using and Installing Chapel on HPE Cray EX systems

Users of HPE Cray EX systems can use Chapel as follows:

  1. Load the Chapel module: module load chapel
  2. Read $CHPL_HOME/doc/rst/platforms/cray.rst for quick-start instructions and more detailed notes.

If these steps don’t work, be sure that the latest version of Chapel (2.5) is installed on your system and ask your system administrator to install it if not. Alternatively, you can build from source using the instructions just below. If the latest version doesn’t work for you, send us a bug report.

Installing Chapel on HPE Apollo, HPE Cray XD, Cray XC, and Cray CS systems

Users of other HPE or Cray systems should download Chapel and build from source, referring to $CHPL_HOME/doc/rst/platforms/cray.rst for details.

With Linux Package Managers

We provide Chapel packages for several different Linux distributions, though they come with some performance caveats. They can be installed as follows:

  1. Download the package for your system using one of the following links:

    Operating System Single-Locale Configuration GASNet+UDP Slurm+OFI
    AlmaLinux 9 [x86_64] [arm64] [x86_64] [arm64] [x86_64] [arm64]
    AlmaLinux 10 [x86_64] [arm64] [x86_64] [arm64] [x86_64] [arm64]
    Amazon Linux 2023 [x86_64] [arm64] [x86_64] [arm64] [x86_64] [arm64]
    Debian 11 [x86_64] [arm64] [x86_64] [arm64]
    Debian 12 [x86_64] [arm64] [x86_64] [arm64]
    Fedora 41 [x86_64] [arm64] [x86_64] [arm64]
    Fedora 42 [x86_64] [arm64] [x86_64] [arm64]
    RHEL 9 [x86_64] [arm64] [x86_64] [arm64] [x86_64] [arm64]
    RHEL 10 [x86_64] [arm64] [x86_64] [arm64] [x86_64] [arm64]
    RockyLinux 9 [x86_64] [arm64] [x86_64] [arm64] [x86_64] [arm64]
    RockyLinux 10 [x86_64] [arm64] [x86_64] [arm64] [x86_64] [arm64]
    Ubuntu 22.04 [x86_64] [arm64] [x86_64] [arm64] [x86_64] [arm64]
    Ubuntu 24.04 [x86_64] [arm64] [x86_64] [arm64] [x86_64] [arm64]

  2. Check its SHA256 checksum using the values and instructions on the corresponding GitHub release page.

  3. Install using the system package manager.

  • For RPM based distributions (Fedora, RHEL, etc), use: dnf install ./<chapel package name>
  • For Debian based distributions (Debian, Ubuntu, etc), use: apt install ./<chapel package name>

Caveats:

  • Using these packages means that parts of the Chapel runtime may not be compiled optimally for your architecture (e.g. the BigInteger and Regex modules may result in degrade performance). Users looking for maximum performance that makes use of their specific hardware should consider building Chapel from source.
  • The GASNet multi-locale configuration is a portable implementation based on GASNet-EX/UDP, so won’t take advantage of high-performance networks.
  • The SLURM/libfabric multi-locale configuration is experimental and may not work with all providers. It is known to work with the tcp and efa providers.