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Install Pact on Linux

You can download and install the Pact programming language and interactive interpreter locally on your local computer as prebuilt binary file from a release archive or build Pact directly from its source code.

Prerequisites​

If you are installing Pact 4.x, you should note that this version of Pact requires the z3 theorem prover from Microsoft Research to support formal verification. Starting with Pact 5, Pact no longer supports formal verification using the z3 theorem prover. If you are installing Pact 5, or later, you can continue to the Installation instructions. If you are installing Pact 4.x, you can install and verify the installation of the z3 package on Linux by running the following commands:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install z3
z3 --version

If z3 is installed properly, you should see output similar to the following:

Z3 version 4.13.3 - 64 bit

Installation instructions​

To install Pact on Linux:

  1. Navigate to the appropriate Pact Releases page:

  2. Download the latest pact-<version>-linux-<arch>.tar.gz file for the Linux operating system and architecture you use.

  3. Open a terminal and extract the downloaded compressed archive by running the following command:

    tar -xvzf pact-<version>-linux-<arch>.tar.gz

  4. Navigate to the extracted directory:

    cd pact-<version>-linux-<arch>

  5. Move the pact binary to a directory in your system PATH, or update your PATH variable.

    For example, to move the pact binary from the current working directory to the /usr/local/bin directory and update the PATH:

    sudo mv pact /usr/local/bin
    export PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATH"

  6. Reload the shell configuration.

    For example, reload the configuration for the bash shell by running the following command:

    source ~/.bashrc

    Replace ~/.bashrc with ~/.zshrc if you use the zsh shell.

  7. Verify the installation by checking the Pact version:

    pact --version

  8. View usage information for the pact interactive interpreter by running the following command:

    pact --help

    For more information about the command-line options, see Pact command-line interpreter. For an introduction to Pact programming and language features, see Pact features and conventions.

Troubleshooting​

If you encounter issues, check the following:

  • Check the Pact version and, if Pact, version 4.x, is installed, verify that you have z3 installed.

    pact --version

    This command should display output similar to the following:

    pact version 4.13

    If the Pact version is 4.x, check for the z3 package by running the following command:

    z3 --version

    If z3 is installed correctly, the command should display output similar to the following:

    Z3 version 4.8.12 - 64 bit

    If necessary, install z3 by running the following commands:

    sudo apt update
    sudo apt install z3
    z3 --version

  • Verify the pact binary can be located and is in a directory included in your PATH environment variable.

    First check the path to the pact binary by running the following command:

    which pact

    This command should display the current path to the pact binary. For example:

    /usr/local/bin/pact

    If the command doesn't display the path to the pact binary, you should try reinstalling pact from the prebuilt release archive or from the source code. If the which pact command displays the path to the pact binary, check the PATH environment variable to verify the path the the binary is include by running the following command:

    echo $PATH

    This command should display output similar to the following:

    /home/pistolas/.nix-profile/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/snap/bin

    The $PATH output should include the directory where the pact binary is located. If the PATH environment variable doesn't include the directory, open your shell profile—for example, the ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc file—in a text editor. Add the following line at the end of the file:

    export PATH="/path/to/pact-directory:$PATH"

    Save the shell profile file and exit.

    Open a new terminal or reload the shell profile to complete the update.

  • Check Pact GitHub Issues for known issues or to report a problem with installing Pact.