These instructions pertain to Unix-like operating systems other than Mac OS X. For Mac OS X instructions, read InstallationOSX. There are also simpler instructions available for OSes that use Debian-style packaging, like Debian and Ubuntu. For those operating systems, read InstallationDebian.

1. Install XULRunner

Read XULRunner for guidance in installing XULRunner.

2. Install Conkeror

2.1. Obtain Conkeror

You can obtain Conkeror either with git or by downloading a snapshot archive. Conkeror does not have to be compiled or installed to system directories; you can extract the snapshot archive or make your git clone anywhere that is convenient for you, for example, ~/src/. Note that if you intend to make changes to the Conkeror source code, using git will be enormously more convenient than using a snapshot, particularly if you may want to contribute your changes back to Conkeror. Git is fairly small, and is easy to install.

2.1.1. git

To use Conkeror from the git repository, first clone the repository, using the command:

git clone git://repo.or.cz/conkeror.git

or, if you are behind a proxy:

git clone http://repo.or.cz/r/conkeror.git

Later on, when you want to update:

git fetch
git log HEAD..origin  #optional, shows you the changes
git merge origin  #you may prefer to rebase if you have commits of your own.  see git documentation.

2.1.2. snapshot archive

To use a snapshot of conkeror:

wget 'http://repo.or.cz/w/conkeror.git?a=snapshot;h=master;sf=tgz' -O conkeror-master.tar.gz
tar xzf conkeror-master.tar.gz

2.2. Install conkeror-spawn-helper

If you want to be able to edit web page text fields in an external editor, you will need to build the included program, conkeror-spawn-helper. Please read ConkerorSpawnHelper for more details.

2.3. Run Conkeror

To launch Conkeror, run XULRunner and pass the full path to Conkeror's application.ini as the first argument:

xulrunner /path/to/conkeror/application.ini

But most people will want to set up a launch script so that they can just call the command conkeror from anywhere...

2.3.1. Setting up a Launch Script

For convenience, most people like to have a conkeror launch script in the executable PATH. There are two ways to do this, one general, and one specific to XULRunner 2 and earlier on GNU/Linux systems. If unsure, go with the general way.

2.3.1.1. General

Create a conkeror script in your executable PATH with the following contents. Adjust the executable name to match the name of your XULRunner binary, and the path to Conkeror. If your XULRunner binary does not reside in your executable PATH, you can give a full path instead.

#!/bin/bash
exec xulrunner /path/to/conkeror/application.ini "$@"

2.3.1.2. XULRunner 2 and Earlier with GNU/Linux

Conkeror comes with a launcher script for GNU/Linux that simplifies installation with versions of XULRunner that have a GRE registry (2 and earlier). Simply create a symlink from /path/to/conkeror/contrib/run-conkeror to your desired executable location. For example:

ln -s /usr/local/lib/conkeror/contrib/run-conkeror /usr/local/bin/conkeror

The run-conkeror script will use the GRE registry to find an appropriate version of XULRunner, and launch Conkeror with it.

My cross-platform pull-and-build shell script for Conkeror on linux and OS X can be found here: https://gist.github.com/PhilHudson/5645427

-- PhilHudson 2013-05-24 18:23:03