This is the EasyEngine v4 installation guide. EasyEngine runs on Linux and Mac, and on any platform that has PHP and Docker.
Automated Installation
Linux
On Linux, the installer script sets up everything EasyEngine needs, including Docker and PHP:
wget -qO ee https://rt.cx/ee4 && sudo bash ee
The installer is tested on every change against these distributions:
- Ubuntu 22.04, 24.04 and 26.04
- Debian 12 and 13
The installer downloads EasyEngine from the official builds repository and checks it against the published SHA-512 checksum before it installs it. If the download fails or the checksum doesn’t match, the installer stops with an error and leaves nothing half-installed.
Installer options
You can change how the installer behaves with environment variables. Pass them through sudo env so they reach the script:
wget -qO ee https://rt.cx/ee4 && sudo env EE_APT_LOCK_WAIT=1 bash ee
| Variable | What it does |
|---|---|
EE_APT_LOCK_WAIT | Set to any value (for example 1) to wait for other package managers to finish instead of failing. Useful on a fresh server where automatic updates hold the package lock right after boot. The installer waits up to 30 minutes for the lock. |
EE_PHP_VERSION | Installs exactly this PHP version for the EasyEngine CLI, for example 8.3. The installer stops with an error if your distribution can’t provide it cleanly. |
EE_PHP_VERSION_CHOICES | The PHP versions to try, in order, when EE_PHP_VERSION isn’t set. The default is 8.4 8.3 8.5 8.2. |
These settings only affect the PHP that runs the EasyEngine CLI on the host. Each site runs its own PHP version in a container, which you choose with ee site create --php.
If the host already has a working PHP, the installer keeps it unless you set EE_PHP_VERSION.
Mac
On Mac, install EasyEngine with Homebrew:
brew install easyengine
Not using Homebrew? You can install EasyEngine on Mac like this:
- Install PHP 8.2 or later (8.4 or 8.5 recommended), with the modules listed under Requirements/Dependencies, and make sure it is in your
$PATH. - Install Docker Desktop for Mac.
- Follow the Phar Install steps below.
Manual Install
EasyEngine has very few dependencies, so you can install it by hand on any *nix platform that meets them.
Requirements/Dependencies
The EasyEngine CLI needs PHP 8.2 or later on the host. We recommend PHP 8.4 or 8.5. Your sites don’t depend on it: each site runs its own PHP version in a container, and EasyEngine manages those for you.
- Docker
- Docker Compose
- PHP CLI 8.2 or later (8.4 or 8.5 recommended)
- PHP modules:
curl,sqlite3,pcntl,zip
Phar Install
With the dependencies in place, download EasyEngine and its checksum, check the download, then move it to /usr/local/bin/ee:
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/EasyEngine/easyengine-builds/master/phar/easyengine.phar
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/EasyEngine/easyengine-builds/master/phar/easyengine.phar.sha512
echo "$(cat easyengine.phar.sha512) easyengine.phar" | sha512sum -c -
sudo mv easyengine.phar /usr/local/bin/ee
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/ee
easyengine.phar: OK means the download matches the published checksum. On Mac, use shasum -a 512 -c - in place of sha512sum -c -.