Installing the Command Line Compiler

You can use the Elements Command Line Compiler, via EBuild.exe, if you do not want to build your projects from inside the IDE, or to use it from automated build scripts or on your CI servers.

On Windows, the command line compiler is installed and made available automatically as part of the regular setup. To just install the command line compiler, you can simply disable the "Water" and "Visual Studio" option when running setup.

On Mac and Linux, the command line compiler can be installed manually. This is necessary to use the compiler form Terminal even if you already have Fire, because Fire comes with the compiler embedded, but does not register it system-wide. See also Setting up the External Compiler for use with Fire for details.

Note: Installing and using the external compiler on Mac or Linux requires Mono 4.0 or later to be installed system-wide and in the default location beforehand.

The Elements Compiler "Mac & Linux Distro"

The Elements compiler is made available as a public download on elementscompiler.com (latest stable version) and/or on the Licensed Downloads Page (all versions, login required).

It is called: "RemObjects Elements - Mac & Linux Distro - *.zip"

Installing this compiler is easy, with just a couple of simple steps:

Unzip the zip archive to a location where you can keep the files (do not unzip right in ~/Downloads and then delete it after installing. The files must persist in the location you perform the next steps from).
Open a Terminal window to the unzipped folder.
Run sh install.sh (you might be asked for your root password).

Once installed, the compiler is available globally to be used, simply by typing ebuild. For example, you can build a project simply by calling ebuild MyProject.sln in Terminal.

Using the External Compiler inside of Fire

See Setting up the External Compiler for use with Fire for details on how to make Fire use the externally installed compiler (opposed to the embedded version).

Uninstalling the External Compiler

If you later want to uninstall the external compiler, simply open a Terminal prompt to the folder from above and run sh uninstall.sh.

However, note that you do not need to uninstall when updating the compiler to a newer version. Simply download the new version, extract it to a new (or the same) folder, and run ./install.sh to update to it. The old folder can then be safely deleted.

Using the External Compiler inside of Visual Studio

On Windows, there will always be one centrally installed compiler, and both it, Water and the Visual Studio integration will be updated in sync. The command line and the IDE will automatically always use the last version you installed.

Using the External Compiler inside of Water

You can ask Water to use a different, separately installed copy of the compiler, by adding string value a called CustomExternalEBuildExe in the Registry under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\RemObjects\Elements\Water (you will already see other settings stored by Water in the same key), and pointing it the full path of the EBuild.exe that you want to use, and adding a second string value called UseCustomExternalEBuildExe and setting it to True.