How To Install Erlang on Ubuntu 22.04|20.04|18.04

Erlang is a functional, general-purpose, concurrent programming language and garbage-collected runtime environment supported and maintained by Ericsson OTP product unit.

Erlang programming language was built for concurrency, fault tolerance, and distributed application architectures. OTP (Open Telecom Platform) is a collection of libraries and middleware for Erlang. This guide will show you how you can install and use the latest release of  Erlang/OTP on Ubuntu 22.04|20.04|18.04 LTS.

1. Install required dependencies

Run the following commands to install required packages.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install curl software-properties-common apt-transport-https lsb-release

2. Add Erlang Repository

Once you have imported the key, add the repository to your Ubuntu system by running the following commands:

curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-erlang/setup.deb.sh' | sudo -E bash

Expected command execution output:

Executing the  setup script for the 'rabbitmq/rabbitmq-erlang' repository ...

   OK: Checking for required executable 'curl' ...
   OK: Checking for required executable 'apt-get' ...
   OK: Detecting your OS distribution and release using system methods ...
 ^^^^: ... Detected/provided for your OS/distribution, version and architecture:
 >>>>:
 >>>>: ... distro=ubuntu  version=22.04  codename=jammy  arch=x86_64
 >>>>:
   OK: Checking for apt dependency 'apt-transport-https' ...
   OK: Checking for apt dependency 'ca-certificates' ...
   OK: Checking for apt dependency 'gnupg' ...
   OK: Checking for apt signed-by key support ...
   OK: Importing 'rabbitmq/rabbitmq-erlang' repository GPG keys ...
   OK: Checking if upstream install config is OK ...
   OK: Installing 'rabbitmq/rabbitmq-erlang' repository via apt ...
   OK: Updating apt repository metadata cache ...
   OK: The repository has been installed successfully - You're ready to rock!

3. Install Erlang package

The last step is the actual installation of Erlang. Update your system package list and install Erlang:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install erlang

To start  Erlang shell, run the command:

$ erl
Erlang/OTP 26 [erts-14.0.2] [source] [64-bit] [smp:2:2] [ds:2:2:10] [async-threads:1] [jit:ns]

Eshell V14.0.2 (press Ctrl+G to abort, type help(). for help)
1> ^G
 --> q

After the shell is started, another prompt is printed. You can test by writing a simple Hello World Erlang code.

$ vim hello.erl
% This is a test Hello World Erlang Code
-module(hello).
-import(io,[fwrite/1]).
-export([helloworld/0]).

helloworld() ->
   fwrite("Hello, Erlang World!\n").

Compile it from the Erlang shell. Don’t forget the full-stop (“period“) at the end of each command.

$ erl
Erlang/OTP 21 [erts-10.1] [source] [64-bit] [smp:2:2] [ds:2:2:10] [async-threads:1]

Eshell V10.1  (abort with ^G)
1> c(hello).
{ok,hello}

Then run the program from the Erlang shell:

2> hello:helloworld().
Hello, Erlang World!
ok
3> ^G
--> q

See below screenshot:

You now have a working Erlang on your Ubuntu 22.04|20.04|18.04 LTS server/Desktop. Enjoy building and running your applications powered by Erlang. All the best!.