Installation

How to install Hoot on Linux, macOS, and Windows

Hoot is a native desktop email client built on the Nostr protocol. Follow the instructions below to install Hoot on your platform.

System requirements

Before installing Hoot, ensure your system meets the following requirements:

• Operating System: Linux, macOS, or Windows
• Rust: Version 1.70 or later (for building from source)
• OpenSSL: Development libraries installed
• Perl: Required for some build dependencies

Install from pre-built binaries

Pre-built binaries are coming soon. For now, please build from source.

Build from source

Building Hoot from source is currently the primary installation method.

Prerequisites

First, install the required dependencies for your platform.

Linux

Install Rust and required build dependencies:

# Install Rust
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
source $HOME/.cargo/env

# Install OpenSSL development libraries
# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get install libssl-dev pkg-config

# Fedora/RHEL
sudo dnf install openssl-devel pkg-config

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S openssl pkg-config

macOS

Install Rust and required build dependencies:

# Install Rust
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
source $HOME/.cargo/env

# Install Xcode command line tools (if not already installed)
xcode-select --install

# OpenSSL is typically pre-installed on macOS

Windows

Install Rust and required build dependencies:

1. Download and install Rust for Windows
2. Install Visual Studio Build Tools with C++ support
3. Install OpenSSL for Windows or use a package manager like Chocolatey:

choco install openssl

Clone and build

Once you have the prerequisites installed, follow these steps:

1. Clone the repository

   Clone the Hoot repository from GitHub:

   git clone https://github.com/your-username/hoot.git
   cd hoot
   
2. Build the release version

   Compile Hoot in release mode for optimal performance:

   cargo build --release
   

   This process may take several minutes as it downloads and compiles all dependencies.

3. Run Hoot

   After the build completes, run Hoot:

   cargo run --release
   

   The compiled binary is also available at target/release/hoot and can be moved to your preferred location.

Install to system

To install Hoot to your system path:

cargo install --path .

This installs the hoot binary to ~/.cargo/bin/, which should be in your PATH.

Development build

If you’re contributing to Hoot or want to run a development build:

# Build and run in development mode
cargo build
cargo run

Development builds include debug symbols and are not optimized, making them slower but easier to debug.

Using Nix

If you have Nix with flakes enabled, you can enter a development environment with all dependencies pre-configured:

nix develop

This automatically sets up Rust, OpenSSL, and other required dependencies.

Profiling build

For performance analysis using the puffin profiler:

cargo build --features profiling
cargo run --features profiling

When profiling is enabled, Hoot starts a puffin server on 127.0.0.1:8585 and attempts to launch puffin_viewer automatically.

Troubleshooting

OpenSSL linking errors

If you encounter OpenSSL linking errors:

• Linux: Ensure libssl-dev and pkg-config are installed
• macOS: Try setting the OpenSSL path:
  export OPENSSL_DIR=/usr/local/opt/openssl@3
  
• Windows: Ensure OpenSSL is installed and the OPENSSL_DIR environment variable points to the installation directory

Rust version issues

Ensure you’re running Rust 1.70 or later:

rustc --version

# Update if needed
rustup update

Next steps

After installing Hoot, proceed to account setup to create or import your Nostr identity.