Kotlin command-line compiler
Every Kotlin release ships with a standalone version of the compiler. You can download the latest version manually or via a package manager.
Install the compiler
Manual install
To install the Kotlin compiler manually:
Download the latest version (
kotlin-compiler-2.0.21.zip
) from GitHub Releases.Unzip the standalone compiler into a directory and optionally add the
bin
directory to the system path. Thebin
directory contains the scripts needed to compile and run Kotlin on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
SDKMAN!
An easier way to install Kotlin on UNIX-based systems, such as macOS, Linux, Cygwin, FreeBSD, and Solaris, is SDKMAN!. It also works in Bash and ZSH shells. Learn how to install SDKMAN!.
To install the Kotlin compiler via SDKMAN!, run the following command in the terminal:
Homebrew
Alternatively, on macOS you can install the compiler via Homebrew:
Snap package
If you use Snap on Ubuntu 16.04 or later, you can install the compiler from the command line:
Create and run an application
Create a simple console JVM application in Kotlin that displays
"Hello, World!"
. In a code editor, create a new file calledhello.kt
with the following code:fun main() { println("Hello, World!") }Compile the application using the Kotlin compiler:
kotlinc hello.kt -include-runtime -d hello.jarThe
-d
option indicates the output path for generated class files, which may be either a directory or a .jar file.The
-include-runtime
option makes the resulting .jar file self-contained and runnable by including the Kotlin runtime library in it.
To see all available options, run:
kotlinc -helpRun the application:
java -jar hello.jar
Compile a library
If you're developing a library to be used by other Kotlin applications, you can build the .jar file without including the Kotlin runtime:
Since binaries compiled this way depend on the Kotlin runtime, you should ensure that it is present in the classpath whenever your compiled library is used
You can also use the kotlin
script to run binaries produced by the Kotlin compiler:
HelloKt
is the main class name that the Kotlin compiler generates for the file named hello.kt
.
Run the REPL
You can run the compiler without parameters to have an interactive shell. In this shell, you can type any valid Kotlin code and see the results.
Run scripts
You can use Kotlin as a scripting language. A Kotlin script is a Kotlin source file (.kts
) with top-level executable code.
To run a script, pass the -script
option to the compiler with the corresponding script file:
Kotlin provides experimental support for script customization, such as adding external properties, providing static or dynamic dependencies, and so on. Customizations are defined by so-called script definitions – annotated kotlin classes with the appropriate support code. The script filename extension is used to select the appropriate definition. Learn more about Kotlin custom scripting.
Properly prepared script definitions are detected and applied automatically when the appropriate jars are included in the compilation classpath. Alternatively, you can specify definitions manually by passing the -script-templates
option to the compiler:
For additional details, see the KEEP-75.