Prerequisites

Install cURL

Download the cURL tool if not already installed.

Note

If you’re on Windows please see the specific note on Windows extras below.

Docker and Docker Compose

You will need the following installed on the platform on which you will be operating, or developing on (or for), Hyperledger Fabric:

  • MacOSX, *nix, or Windows 10: Docker v1.12 or greater is required.
  • Older versions of Windows: Docker Toolbox - again, Docker version v1.12 or greater is required.

You can check the version of Docker you have installed with the following command from a terminal prompt:

docker --version

Note

Installing Docker for Mac or Windows, or Docker Toolbox will also install Docker Compose. If you already had Docker installed, you should check that you have Docker Compose version 1.8 or greater installed. If not, we recommend that you install a more recent version of Docker.

You can check the version of Docker Compose you have installed with the following command from a terminal prompt:

docker-compose --version

Go Programming Language

Hyperledger Fabric uses the Go programming language 1.7.x for many of its components.

Given that we are writing a Go chaincode program, we need to be sure that the source code is located somewhere within the $GOPATH tree. First, you will need to check that you have set your $GOPATH environment variable.

If nothing is displayed when you echo $GOPATH, you will need to set it. Typically, the value will be a directory tree child of your development workspace, if you have one, or as a child of your $HOME directory. Since we’ll be doing a bunch of coding in Go, you might want to add the following to your ~/.bashrc:

export GOPATH=$HOME/go
export PATH=$PATH:$GOPATH/bin

Node.js Runtime and NPM

If you will be developing applications for Hyperledger Fabric leveraging the Hyperledger Fabric SDK for Node.js, you will need to have version 6.9.x of Node.js installed.

Note

Node.js version 7.x is not supported at this time.

  • Node.js - version 6.9.x or greater

Note

Installing Node.js will also install NPM, however it is recommended that you update the default version of NPM installed. You can upgrade the npm tool with the following command:

npm install npm@latest -g

Windows extras

If you are developing on Windows, you may also need the following which provides a better alternative to the built-in Windows tools:

Note

On older versions of Windows, such as Windows 7, you typically get this as part of installing Docker Toolbox. However experience has shown this to be a poor development environment with limited functionality. It is suitable to run Docker based scenarios, such as Getting Started, but you may not be able to find a suitable make command.

Note

The curl command that comes with Git and Docker Toolbox is old and does not handle properly the redirect used in Getting Started. Make sure you install and use a newer version from the cURL downloads page