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Install binary distribution

MacOS with Homebrew​

Prerequisites​

caution

Besu supports:

  • MacOS High Sierra 10.13 or later versions.
  • Java 21+. You can install Java using brew install openjdk@21. Alternatively, you can manually install the Java JDK.

Install (or upgrade) using Homebrew​

To install Besu using Homebrew:

brew tap hyperledger/besu
brew install hyperledger/besu/besu

To upgrade an existing Besu installation using Homebrew:

brew upgrade hyperledger/besu/besu
notes

  • If you upgraded your MacOS version between installing and upgrading Besu, when running brew upgrade hyperledger/besu/besu you might be prompted to reinstall command line tools with xcode-select --install.

  • When upgrading Besu, you might be prompted to fix the remote branch names in Homebrew by using the command brew tap --repair.

To display the Besu version and confirm installation:

besu --version

To display Besu command line help:

besu --help

Linux / Unix​

Prerequisites​

Linux open file limit

If synchronizing to Mainnet on Linux or other chains with large data requirements, increase the maximum number of open files allowed using ulimit. If the open files limit is not high enough, a Too many open files RocksDB exception occurs.

tip

We recommend installing jemalloc to reduce memory usage. If using Ubuntu, you can install it with the command: apt install libjemalloc-dev.

Install from packaged binaries​

Download the Besu packaged binaries.

Unpack the downloaded files and change into the besu-<release> directory.

Display Besu command line help to confirm installation:

bin/besu --help

Upgrade Besu​

See the Upgrade Besu guide for instructions on upgrading Besu on Linux.