# Installing the Glasgow Haskell Compiler and Cabal

To compile Cardano Node using source code, you must install the Glasgow Haskell Compiler (GHC) and Cabal for building applications and libraries.

For each Cardano Node release, Input-Output recommends compiling binaries using specific versions of GHC and Cabal. For example, refer to [Installing cardano-node and cardano-cli from source](https://developers.cardano.org/docs/get-started/installing-cardano-node/) in the [Cardano Developer Portal](https://developers.cardano.org/docs/get-started/) to determine the GHC and Cabal versions required for the current Cardano Node release. *Table 1* lists GHC and Cabal version requirements for the current Cardano Node release.

*Table 1 Current Cardano Node Version Requirements*

| Release Date | Cardano Node Version | Cardano CLI Version | GHC Version | Cabal Version |
| :----------: | :------------------: | :-----------------: | :---------: | :-----------: |
|   July 2025  |        10.5.1        |      10.11.0.0      |    9.6.7    |    3.12.1.0   |

**To install GHC and Cabal:**

1\. In a terminal window on the computer hosting your block-producing node, to install the latest versions of all previously installed packages assuming the answer `yes` to all prompts, type:

```bash
sudo apt-get update -y
sudo apt-get upgrade -y
```

2\. To install packages and tools required for downloading and compiling Cardano Node source code, type:

```bash
sudo apt-get install autoconf automake build-essential curl g++ git jq libffi-dev libgmp-dev libncurses-dev libssl-dev libsystemd-dev libtool make pkg-config tmux wget zlib1g-dev liblmdb-dev -y
```

{% hint style="info" %}
To list all packages installed on your computer, type `apt list --installed`
{% endhint %}

3\. To use the GHCup installer to install GHC and Cabal, type:

```bash
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://get-ghcup.haskell.org | sh
```

4\. During installation, when prompted:\
i. Press ENTER to proceed.\
ii. To prepend the required PATH variable to `$HOME/.bashrc`, type `P`\
iii. When prompted to install haskell-language-server (HLS), type `N`\
iv. When prompted to install stack, type `N`\
v. Press ENTER to proceed.

{% hint style="info" %}
The `$HOME` environment variable or `~` tilde prefix refers to the home directory associated with your login name. The `.bashrc` file is a Bash script that runs each time you open a new terminal window. In the `.bashrc` file, you can add any command that you may type at the command prompt. Use `.bashrc` to set up the shell as needed for your environment.
{% endhint %}

5\. When GHCup finishes installing GHC and Cabal, type the following commands to reload your shell profile, and then confirm that GHCup installed correctly:

```bash
source $HOME/.bashrc
ghcup --version
```

{% hint style="info" %}
If GHCup is installed correctly, then the `ghcup --version` command returns `The GHCup Haskell installer, version <GHCupVersionNumber>` where `<GHCupVersionNumber>` is the version number of GHCup installed on your computer.
{% endhint %}

6\. To set the Glasgow Haskell Compiler to the version required for compiling the current Cardano Node release, type the following commands where `<GHCVersionNumber>` is the GHC version that you need to install and use:

```bash
ghcup install ghc <GHCVersionNumber>
ghcup set ghc <GHCVersionNumber>
ghc --version
```

7\. To set Cabal to the version required for compiling the current Cardano Node release, type the following commands where `<CabalVersionNumber>` is the Cabal version that you need to install and use:

```bash
ghcup install cabal <CabalVersionNumber>
ghcup set cabal <CabalVersionNumber>
cabal --version
```

8\. To create a working directory to store source code and builds related to Cardano Node, type:

```bash
mkdir $HOME/git
cd $HOME/git
```

9\. To download, compile and install `libsodium`, type:

```bash
git clone https://github.com/input-output-hk/libsodium
cd libsodium
git checkout dbb48cc
./autogen.sh
./configure
make
sudo make install
```

{% hint style="info" %}
If you are using the **Debian** GNU/Linux distribution, then you may need to type the following command to create a symbolic link:

```bash
sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib/libsodium.so.23.3.0 /usr/lib/libsodium.so.23
```

If you are using the **CentOS** Linux distribution on Amazon Web Services, then you may need to update available symbolic links for currently shared libraries:

```bash
sudo ldconfig
```

If you are using Ubuntu on a **Raspberry Pi 4**, then type the following command to resolve a `cannot find -lnuma` error message when compiling `libsodium`:

```bash
sudo apt-get install libnuma-dev
```

{% endhint %}

10\. To download, compile and install `libsecp256k1`, type:

```
cd $HOME/git
git clone --depth 1 --branch v0.3.2 https://github.com/bitcoin-core/secp256k1
cd secp256k1
./autogen.sh
./configure --enable-module-schnorrsig --enable-experimental
make
make check
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig
```

11\. To download and install the `blst` library, type:

```
cd $HOME/git
git clone https://github.com/supranational/blst
cd blst
git checkout v0.3.11
./build.sh
cat > libblst.pc << EOF
prefix=/usr/local
exec_prefix=\${prefix}
libdir=\${exec_prefix}/lib
includedir=\${prefix}/include

Name: libblst
Description: Multilingual BLS12-381 signature library
URL: https://github.com/supranational/blst
Version: 0.3.11
Cflags: -I\${includedir}
Libs: -L\${libdir} -lblst
EOF
sudo cp libblst.pc /usr/local/lib/pkgconfig/
sudo cp bindings/blst_aux.h bindings/blst.h bindings/blst.hpp /usr/local/include/
sudo cp libblst.a /usr/local/lib
sudo chmod u=rw,go=r /usr/local/{lib/{libblst.a,pkgconfig/libblst.pc},include/{blst.{h,hpp},blst_aux.h}}
```

12\. Using a text editor, open the `$HOME/.bashrc` file, and then add the following lines at the end of the file:

```bash
# Set environment variables so that the compiler finds libsodium, libsecp256k1 and blst libraries on your computer
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="/usr/local/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH"
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig:$PKG_CONFIG_PATH"
# Set an environment variable indicating the file path to configuration files and scripts
# related to operating your Cardano node
export NODE_HOME="$HOME/cardano-my-node"
# Set an environment variable indicating the Cardano network cluster where your node runs
export NODE_CONFIG="mainnet"
# Set an environment variable indicating where the Cardano node socket file is located
export CARDANO_NODE_SOCKET_PATH="$NODE_HOME/db/socket"
```

{% hint style="info" %}
If you plan to use your Cardano node on a testnet network instead of mainnet, then replace the line `export NODE_CONFIG="mainnet"` in your `$HOME/.bashrc` file with `export NODE_CONFIG="testnet"` Also, when working through the *How to Set Up a Cardano Stake Pool* guide, replace every instance of the command option `--mainnet` with `--testnet-magic <MagicNumber>` where `<MagicNumber>` is the network magic number for the testnet network that you want to use. For details on available testnet networks, see [Environments](https://book.world.dev.cardano.org/environments.html).
{% endhint %}

13\. Save and close the `$HOME/.bashrc` file.

14\. To create the folder set for the `NODE_HOME` environment variable in your `$HOME/.bashrc` file, type:

```bash
mkdir $HOME/cardano-my-node
```

15\. To reload your shell profile, type:

```bash
source $HOME/.bashrc
```

16\. On each computer hosting a relay or block-producing node for your stake pool, repeat steps 1 to 15