Me Dev, You Jane

Install Erlang

Lets start with installing the basic Erlang runtime.

cd /tmp
curl http://erlang.org/download/otp_src_R12B-4.tar.gz | tar zx
cd otp_src_R12B-4
./configure --enable-hipe  --enable-darwin-universal
make
sudo make install

To verify that everything is installed enter the command erl. You should be greeted with the erlang shell. You can exit it by entering the shortcut "q()." without the quotes (remember the period).

Install a Few Must Have Libraries

Now lets install a few libraries that it is likely that you will want to try out. First of all follow the instructions here to add your own library path. Now enter it and add the modules:

mkdir -p /Library/Erlang/lib
cd /Library/Erlang/lib

The first thing we want is the the Mochiweb library. Mochiweb is a simple but powerful http server.

sudo svn co http://mochiweb.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ mochiweb-trunk
cd mochiweb-trunk
sudo make
cd ..

Next is the EUnit library. EUnit is a powerful unit testing library for Erlang.

sudo svn co http://svn.process-one.net/contribs/trunk/eunit eunit-trunk
cd eunit-trunk
sudo make
cd ..

If you have some legacy data you need to access in a MySQL database you will need the MySQL library. For new projects you propably are going to want to use Mnesia.

sudo svn co http://erlang-mysql-driver.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ mysql-trunk
cd mysql-trunk
sudo mkdir ebin
sudo erlc -o ebin src/mysql.erl
sudo erlc -o ebin src/mysql_auth.erl
sudo erlc -o ebin src/mysql_conn.erl 
sudo erlc -o ebin src/mysql_recv.erl
cd ..

Now everything should be set up and ready. Lets try it by entering the following commands in the erl shell:

mochiweb:module_info().
eunit:module_info().
mysql:module_info().

If any are not installed correctly you will receive single line with an exception error.

EDIT 2008-09-03: Updated for R12B-4