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Installing on Linux

Tested on Ubuntu 22.04+ and Debian 12+. Other distributions work; the package names below will differ on Fedora/Arch/NixOS.

System packages (Debian/Ubuntu)​

sudo apt update
sudo apt install \
  build-essential \
  pkg-config \
  libpq-dev \
  libsnappy-dev \
  liburing-dev \
  zlib1g-dev \
  libtinfo-dev \
  libgmp-dev \
  curl
Why liburing

liburing-dev is the asynchronous-I/O backend used by the LSM-based dedup stores and the on-disk LedgerDB. It's available on every kernel ≥ 5.1, which is every Debian/Ubuntu release currently in support. The build falls back to +serialblockio if it's missing, but the LedgerDB is noticeably slower without it.

PostgreSQL isn't in the list above because most distributions don't ship version 18 yet. Install the server (postgresql-18, which brings the psql / pg_dump client tools with it) from the official PostgreSQL APT repository:

sudo apt install -y postgresql-common
sudo /usr/share/postgresql-common/pgdg/apt.postgresql.org.sh -y
sudo apt install -y postgresql-18 postgresql-client-18

Fedora / RHEL​

sudo dnf install \
  gcc gcc-c++ make \
  pkgconf-pkg-config \
  postgresql-server postgresql-devel \
  snappy-devel \
  liburing-devel \
  zlib-devel ncurses-devel gmp-devel \
  curl

Initialise PostgreSQL with sudo postgresql-setup --initdb and start the service.

Haskell toolchain​

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

Then install the required versions:

ghcup install ghc 9.14.1
ghcup set ghc 9.14.1
ghcup install cabal 3.16.1.0
ghcup set cabal 3.16.1.0

ghcup tui is the easier way to manage versions if you have several GHC installs side by side.

PostgreSQL setup​

Create a database role and a database for dbsync to use. The profile JSON's database block will reference them:

sudo -u postgres createuser --createdb --pwprompt dbsync
sudo -u postgres createdb -O dbsync cexplorer

cexplorer is the conventional database name (matching upstream cardano-db-sync); change it freely.

NixOS​

The repository targets a recent CHaP snapshot and a pinned cardano-node fork, so nix develop is not currently wired up in this repo. Build via the standard cabal flow inside a shell that provides the system libraries:

{ pkgs }: pkgs.mkShell {
  buildInputs = with pkgs; [
    pkg-config snappy liburing zlib gmp
    postgresql_18
    ghc cabal-install
  ];
}

GHC 9.14.1 specifically is required; nixpkgs may default to a different version. Pin via haskell.compiler.ghc9141 once it's available, or fall back to ghcup inside the shell.

Next​

Once the toolchain and PostgreSQL are installed, move on to Building from source.