> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.mozilla.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.mozilla.ai/llamafile/using-llamafile/source_installation.md).

# Source installation

Developing on llamafile requires a modern version of the GNU `make` command (called `gmake` on some systems), `sha256sum` (otherwise `cc` will be used to build it), `wget` (or `curl`), and `unzip` available at <https://cosmo.zip/pub/cosmos/bin/>. Windows users need [cosmos bash](https://justine.lol/cosmo3/) shell too.

#### Dependency Setup

Some dependencies are managed as git submodules with llamafile-specific patches. Before building, you need to initialize and configure these dependencies:

```sh
make setup
```

The patches modify code in the git submodules. These modifications remain as local changes in the submodule working directories.

`make setup` also downloads the [Cosmopolitan](https://github.com/jart/cosmopolitan/) C compiler for you, saving it under the `.cosmocc` directory.

#### Building

```sh
.cosmocc/4.0.2/bin/make -j8
sudo .cosmocc/4.0.2/bin/make install PREFIX=/usr/local
```

Build outputs will appear in the `./o` directory, e.g.:

* `./o/llama.cpp/server/llama-server`: the original llama.cpp inference server, compiled with cosmocc
* `o/llamafile/llamafile`: the llamafile executable, running both as a TUI and a server (with the `--server` flag)
* `o/third_party/zipalign/zipalign`: the zipalign tool used to bundle llamafile executable, model weights, and default args into llamafiles

> **NOTE**: Calling `make` should automatically run cosmocc's make when required. If that does not happen for any reason, you can still directly run the one provided by cosmocc: `.cosmocc/4.0.2/bin/make`.

#### Testing

Optionally, you can verify the build with:

```sh
make check
```

This runs our unit tests to ensure everything is built correctly.

Some integration tests in `tests/integration` are available to test llamafile with real models. Check the [README](https://github.com/mozilla-ai/llamafile/blob/main/tests/integration/README.md) to learn how to run them.

#### Running llamafile

After the build, you can run llamafile as:

```sh
./o/llamafile/llamafile --model <gguf_model>
```

or just the llama.cpp server as:

```sh
./o/llamafile/llamafile --model <gguf_model> --server
```

or the llamafile CLI command as:

```sh
./o/llamafile/llamafile --model <gguf_model> --cli -p "Hello world"
```

### Documentation

There's a manual page for each of the llamafile programs installed when you run `sudo make install`. Most commands will also display that information when passing the `--help` flag.


---

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