GraalVM Updater
GraalVM Updater, gu
, is a command-line utility used to install and manage
optional GraalVM language runtimes and utilities. Each of these language
runtimes and utilities must be downloaded and installed separately. To assist
you with the installation, these are pre-packaged as JAR files and referenced
in the documentation as “components.”
- Component Installation
- Component Uninstallation
- Installation Configuration
- Rebuild Images
- GraalVM Updater Commands Overview
- Configure Proxies
- Replace Components and Files
Tools/Utilities:
- Native Image – a technology to compile an application ahead-of-time into a native executable
- LLVM toolchain – a set of tools and APIs for compiling native programs to bitcode that can be executed on GraalVM
Language Runtimes:
- Python – Python 3.8.5-compatible
- Ruby – Ruby 2.6.6-compatible
- R – GNU R 3.6.1-compatible
- Wasm – WebAssembly (Wasm)
GraalVM Updater verifies whether or not the version of a component is appropriate for the current GraalVM installation. Components are released for each GraalVM distribution with respective updates, and those downloaded for previous release(s) cannot be used with newer ones. Note: Components intended for Oracle GraalVM Enterprise Edition cannot be installed on GraalVM Community Edition. A component may require other components as prerequisites for its operation. GraalVM Updater verifies such requirements and will either attempt to download the required dependencies, or abort the installation if the component’s requirements are not met.
GraalVM Updater is included in the base GraalVM distribution and can be used
with the <GRAALVM_HOME>/bin/gu
launcher. The source code of GraalVM Updater is
located in the <GRAALVM_HOME>/lib/installer
folder.
Component Installation
Three modes of a component installation are supported:
Manual Installation
A manual installation is required for Oracle GraalVM Enterprise Edition users.
- Download a component from the Oracle Technology Network page. The following pre-built components are available for download:
- Oracle GraalVM Enterprise Edition Native Image Early Adopter
- GraalVM LLVM Toolchain Plugin
- Oracle GraalVM Enterprise Edition Ruby Language Plugin
- Oracle GraalVM Enterprise Edition Python Language Plugin
- Oracle GraalVM Enterprise Edition WebAssembly Language Plugin
- Having downloaded the appropriate JAR file in consideration of the operating system
and underlying Java SE version, install it with:
gu -L install component.jar
For example, to install Native Image for Java 11 GraalVM Enterprise distribution on macOS, run:
gu -L install native-image-installable-svm-java11-darwin-amd64-20.0.1.jar
The -L
option, equivalent to --local-file
or --file
, installs a component from a downloaded JAR.
However, a component may depend on other components (e.g., Ruby depends on the LLVM toolchain). For example, gu -L install component.jar
will fail if the required components are not yet
installed. If all dependencies are downloaded into the same directory, you can run:
gu -L install -D
Check gu --help
or gu -C
for how to instruct GraalVM Updater to find and process required components.
Installation from Catalog
The installation from catalog is required for GraalVM Community users.
There is a components catalog available on GitHub, maintained by Oracle, from which you can install a component by its name.
- Get a list of IDs and descriptive names of the components available in the catalog:
gu available
- Install the component package using the
ComponentId
value. For example, forruby
:gu install ruby
GraalVM Updater first downloads the list of components, then uses the information in the list to download the actual component package, then installs it. To see more verbose output during the installation, like the download progress bar, print versions, and dependency information, use the
-v
(--verbose
) switch.
If a component being installed depends on another component, GraalVM Updater will search the catalog to find an appropriate dependency and install it as well. If the required components cannot be found, installation will fail.
When using custom catalog URLs, it is possible, for a convenience, to set
the environment variable GRAALVM_CATALOG
pointing to the custom catalog’s URL.
GraalVM Updater will use the URL defined by GRAALVM_CATALOG
in preference to
the builtin ones. You may setup the environment variable in startup or profile
scripts.
Installation from Local Components Collection
Components can be downloaded manually in advance to a local file folder, or to a folder shared on the local network. GraalVM Updater can then use that folder instead of the catalog:
gu install -C /path/to/downloads/directory ComponentId
Specify the directory to use for the components collection. It is possible to type
a component’s name (like ruby
) instead of a filename. GraalVM Updater will also
attempt to find required dependencies in the local component collection.
When installing components from a given directory, you can allow installing all components which have the correct version number for GraalVM Enterprise using wildcards:
./gu install -C ~/Download/Components/ native*
This will install the native-image
component, or anything that starts with native
.
Check Installed Components
Installed components can be printed with:
gu list
Generic support for R, Ruby, Python, and WebAssembly languages will work out of the box in most cases. It is recommended to fine-tune system-dependent configurations, following the recommendations in the component post-installation messages.
Component Uninstallation
Components may be uninstalled from GraalVM when no longer needed. To uninstall a
specific component, use its ComponentId
. Run gu list
to find out the exact
ComponentId
. The command to uninstall the component is:
gu remove ruby
If more components end with, for example, ruby
, the installer will print an
error message that a component’s full name is required (org.graalvm.ruby
).
The uninstallation removes the files created during the installation. If a file
belongs to multiple components, it will be removed when the last component using
it is removed.
Please be informed that the LLVM toolchain component may fail uninstallation invoked from the command line or the Visual Studio Code user interface if its dependent component(s) remain installed.
In this case, remove the dependent component first, or add the -D
option, which would remove dependent components in addition to those explicitly selected:
gu -D remove llvm-toolchain
Installation Configuration
The installation command of GraalVM Updater accepts multiple options and parameters, and allows this syntax:
gu install [-0cCfFiLnorsuvyxY] param [param ...]
The following options are currently supported:
-0, --dry-run
: dry run, do not change anything-c, --catalog
: treat parameters as component IDs from the GraalVM components catalog. This is the default-C, --custom-catalog <url>
: use a specific catalog URL to locate components-L, --local-file
: treat parameters as local filenames of packaged components-f, --force
: force overwrite, bypass version checks-i, --fail-existing
: fail on an existing component-n, --no-progress
: do not display the downloading progress-o, --overwrite
: overwrite different files-r, --replace
: replace existing components-s, --no-verify-jars
: skip integrity verification of component archives-u, --url
: interpret parameters as URLs of packaged components-v, --verbose
: be verbose. Prints versions and dependency information-x, --ignore
: ignore failures-y, --only-validate
: do not install, just check compatibility and conflicting files-Y, --validate-before
: download, verify, and check file conflicts before any disk change is made
Rebuild Images
GraalVM components for language runtime support may change. For example:
- polyglot native libraries become out of sync.
- removed languages runtimes may cause the native binary to fail on missing resources or libraries.
To rebuild and refresh the native binaries, use the following command:
gu rebuild-images [--verbose] polyglot|libpolyglot|js|llvm|python|ruby [custom native-image args]
GraalVM Updater Commands Overview
Command-line help is available by running gu
or gu -h
. Run gu <command> -h
to get help specific for the particular command. For example, gu install -h
.
GraalVM Updater usage options:
gu info [-cClLnprstuvV] <param>
: print the information about specific component (from file, URL, or catalog)gu available [-aClvV] <expr>
: list components available in the cataloggu install [-0cCDfFiLnorsuvyxY] <param>
: install a component packagegu list [-clv] <expression>
: list installed components or components from cataloggu remove [-0Dfxv] <id>
: uninstall a componentgu update [-cCnLsux] [<ver>] [<param>]
: upgrade to the recent GraalVM versiongu rebuild-images
: rebuild native images. Use-h
for detailed usage
GraalVM Updater common options:
-A, --auto-yes
: say YES or ACCEPT to a question-c, --catalog
: treat parameters as component IDs from the catalog of GraalVM components. This is the default-C, --custom-catalog <url>
: use user-supplied catalog at URL-e, --debug
: enable debugging and print stacktraces-E, --no-catalog-errors
: do not stop if at least one catalog is working-h, --help
: print help-L, --local-file, --file
: treat parameters as local filenames of packaged components-N, --non-interactive
: enable non-interactive mode. Fail when input is required--show-version
: print version information and continue-u, --url
: interpret parameters as URLs of packaged components-v, --verbose
: enable verbose output. Print versions and dependency information--version
: print version
Oracle GraalVM Enterprise Edition users might need to pass an additional verification step to login to the Oracle components repository. GraalVM Updater tool provides options for that:
--public-key / -k <path>
: set the path to a custom GPG public key path--username/-U
: enter a username
Runtime options:
--native
: run using the native launcher with limited Java access (default)--jvm
: run on the Java Virtual Machine with Java access--vm.[option]
: pass options to the host VM. To see available options, use--help:vm
--log.file=<String>
: redirect guest languages logging into a given file--log.[logger].level=<String>
: set language log level to OFF, SEVERE, WARNING, INFO, CONFIG, FINE, FINER, FINEST, or ALL--help
: print this help message--help:vm
: print options for the host VM
Configure Proxies
If GraalVM Updater needs to reach the component catalog, or download a component
package, it may need to pass through the HTTP/HTTPS proxy, if the network uses one. On
macOS, the proxy settings are automatically obtained from the OS. On Linux,
ensure that the http_proxy
and https_proxy
environment variables are set
appropriately before launching the gu
tool. Refer to the distribution
and/or desktop environment documentation for the details.
GraalVM Updater intentionally does not support an option to disable certificate
or hostname verification, for security reasons. A user may try to add a proxy’s
certificate to the GraalVM default security trust store. A user can also
download a component manually to a folder, and then use gu -L install /path/to/file
or gu -C /path/to/download/dir install component
to install from a local filesystem.
Working without Internet Access
If your machine cannot access and download the catalog and components from the Internet, either because it is behind a proxy, or for security reasons, GraalVM Updater can install components from a local directory, or a directory on a network share accessible on the target machine.
You need to prepare a directory, download all components that you want to install and their dependencies (in case they require other GraalVM components to work) into that directory.
Then you can use gu -L install /path/to/file
(where the -L
option instructs to use local files,
equivalent to --local-file
or --file
). Adding the -D
option will instruct GraalVM Updater
to look for potential dependencies in the directory next to the
installable file. Additionally, gu -C /path/to/download/dir install component
can be used, with the specified
directory contents acting as a catalog of components.
Note that with gu -L
you need to specify the component’s file name, while
when using gu -C <dir>
, the component name must be used:
# Specify file location
gu -LD install /tmp/installables/fastr.jar
# Specify component name
gu -C /tmp/instalables install r
Replace Components and Files
A component may be only installed once. GraalVM Updater refuses to install a component if a component with the same ID is already installed. However, the installed component can be replaced. GraalVM Updater first uninstalls the component and then installs a new package.
To replace a component, use the -r
option, and the -L
(--local-file
or --file
) option to treat parameters as local filename of a packaged component:
gu install -L -r component.jar
gu install -r ruby
The process is the same as if gu remove
is run first and gu install
next.
GraalVM Updater also refuses to overwrite existing files if the
to-be-installed and existing versions differ. There are cases when refreshing
file contents may be needed, such as if they were modified or damaged. In this case, use the -o
option:
gu install -L -o component.jar
gu install -o ruby
GraalVM Updater will then instruct the user to replace the contained files of a
component. By default, it will not alter anything. Alternatively, use the -f
(--force
) option, which disables most of the checks, and allows the user to
install non-matching versions.
Troubleshooting
If a language component is not installed, running code that tries to initialize that language context can result in an exception like this:
java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
Caused by: com.oracle.truffle.polyglot.PolyglotIllegalArgumentException: A language with id '$language' is not installed. Installed languages are: [js, llvm].
If you see a problem like that, install the language runtime component as explained above on this page.