Install

One command on most systems.

Macaulay2 1.26.06, released 10 June 2026. Free and open source under the GNU General Public License.

Recommended for macOS

$brew trust Macaulay2/tap

$brew install Macaulay2/tap/M2

Installs the current release and every dependency. Requires Homebrew. Upgrade later with brew upgrade M2.

Ubuntu — the project's own PPA

$sudo add-apt-repository ppa:macaulay2/macaulay2

$sudo apt install macaulay2

Debian ships Macaulay2 in its own archive, and the project publishes a newer repository for stable at macaulay2.com/Repositories/Debian. Fedora: sudo dnf install Macaulay2. Arch (AUR), NixOS and Spack builds exist too — see the full per-distro guide.

Docker — build from the official images

$git clone https://github.com/Macaulay2/M2 && cd M2/M2/BUILD/docker

$make build && make run-M2

The repository's M2/BUILD/docker directory holds maintained images for Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora and more. There is no published pull-and-run image — the Makefile builds one locally in a few minutes.

Check it worked

$M2 --version

Prints 1.26.06. Then type M2 to open a session.

Nothing to install first? The browser notebook runs a real Macaulay2 process with no local setup. It is the fastest way to find out whether Macaulay2 is the right tool before committing a machine to it. Open a notebook.