Clojure 1.9 windows install

Question

In the past I've use the windows installer provided at clojure.org to install clojure on my various Windows machines. Clojure 1.9 has been out for a few weeks now but still no sign of an installer for Windows or a generic Java-based install, as far as I can find.

I've tried downloading the jars from clojure.org and running

java -jar clojure.1.9.0.jar

but that just dumps stack:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
        at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
        at java.lang.Class.forName(Unknown Source)
        at clojure.lang.RT.classForName(RT.java:2204)
        at clojure.lang.RT.classForName(RT.java:2213)
        at clojure.lang.RT.loadClassForName(RT.java:2232)
        at clojure.lang.RT.load(RT.java:450)
        at clojure.lang.RT.load(RT.java:426)
        at clojure.core$load$fn__6548.invoke(core.clj:6046)
        at clojure.core$load.invokeStatic(core.clj:6045)
        at clojure.core$load.doInvoke(core.clj:6029)
        at clojure.lang.RestFn.invoke(RestFn.java:408)
        at clojure.core$load_one.invokeStatic(core.clj:5848)
        at clojure.core$load_one.invoke(core.clj:5843)
        at clojure.core$load_lib$fn__6493.invoke(core.clj:5888)
        at clojure.core$load_lib.invokeStatic(core.clj:5887)
        at clojure.core$load_lib.doInvoke(core.clj:5868)
        at clojure.lang.RestFn.applyTo(RestFn.java:142)
        at clojure.core$apply.invokeStatic(core.clj:659)
        at clojure.core$load_libs.invokeStatic(core.clj:5925)
        at clojure.core$load_libs.doInvoke(core.clj:5909)
        at clojure.lang.RestFn.applyTo(RestFn.java:137)
        at clojure.core$apply.invokeStatic(core.clj:659)
        at clojure.core$require.invokeStatic(core.clj:5947)
        at clojure.core.server$loading__6434__auto____8456.invoke(server.clj:9)
        at clojure.core.server__init.load(Unknown Source)
        at clojure.core.server__init.<clinit>(Unknown Source)
        at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
        at java.lang.Class.forName(Unknown Source)
        at clojure.lang.RT.classForName(RT.java:2204)
        at clojure.lang.RT.classForName(RT.java:2213)
        at clojure.lang.RT.loadClassForName(RT.java:2232)
        at clojure.lang.RT.load(RT.java:450)
        at clojure.lang.RT.load(RT.java:426)
        at clojure.core$load$fn__6548.invoke(core.clj:6046)
        at clojure.core$load.invokeStatic(core.clj:6045)
        at clojure.core$load.doInvoke(core.clj:6029)
        at clojure.lang.RestFn.invoke(RestFn.java:408)
        at clojure.core$load_one.invokeStatic(core.clj:5848)
        at clojure.core$load_one.invoke(core.clj:5843)
        at clojure.core$load_lib$fn__6493.invoke(core.clj:5888)
        at clojure.core$load_lib.invokeStatic(core.clj:5887)
        at clojure.core$load_lib.doInvoke(core.clj:5868)
        at clojure.lang.RestFn.applyTo(RestFn.java:142)
        at clojure.core$apply.invokeStatic(core.clj:659)
        at clojure.core$load_libs.invokeStatic(core.clj:5925)
        at clojure.core$load_libs.doInvoke(core.clj:5909)
        at clojure.lang.RestFn.applyTo(RestFn.java:137)
        at clojure.core$apply.invokeStatic(core.clj:659)
        at clojure.core$require.invokeStatic(core.clj:5947)
        at clojure.core$require.doInvoke(core.clj:5947)
        at clojure.lang.RestFn.invoke(RestFn.java:408)
        at clojure.lang.Var.invoke(Var.java:381)
        at clojure.lang.RT.doInit(RT.java:487)
        at clojure.lang.RT.<clinit>(RT.java:336)
        at clojure.main.<clinit>(main.java:20)
Caused by: java.io.FileNotFoundException: Could not locate clojure/spec/alpha__init.class or clojure/spec/alpha.clj on classpath.
        at clojure.lang.RT.load(RT.java:463)
        at clojure.lang.RT.load(RT.java:426)
        at clojure.core$load$fn__6548.invoke(core.clj:6046)
        at clojure.core$load.invokeStatic(core.clj:6045)
        at clojure.core$load.doInvoke(core.clj:6029)
        at clojure.lang.RestFn.invoke(RestFn.java:408)
        at clojure.core$load_one.invokeStatic(core.clj:5848)
        at clojure.core$load_one.invoke(core.clj:5843)
        at clojure.core$load_lib$fn__6493.invoke(core.clj:5888)
        at clojure.core$load_lib.invokeStatic(core.clj:5887)
        at clojure.core$load_lib.doInvoke(core.clj:5868)
        at clojure.lang.RestFn.applyTo(RestFn.java:142)
        at clojure.core$apply.invokeStatic(core.clj:659)
        at clojure.core$load_libs.invokeStatic(core.clj:5925)
        at clojure.core$load_libs.doInvoke(core.clj:5909)
        at clojure.lang.RestFn.applyTo(RestFn.java:137)
        at clojure.core$apply.invokeStatic(core.clj:659)
        at clojure.core$require.invokeStatic(core.clj:5947)
        at clojure.main$loading__6434__auto____8543.invoke(main.clj:11)
        at clojure.main__init.load(Unknown Source)
        at clojure.main__init.<clinit>(Unknown Source)
        ... 55 more

and as I don't have files clojure/spec/alpha__init.class or clojure/spec/alpha.clj it appears that at the moment I'm out of luck.

So - is there a step-by-step to go from having the 1.9.0 jars to making it all run on Windows?

All suggestions welcomed.

Answer 1

TL;DR:

You also have to download org.clojure/spec.alpha and org.clojure/core.specs.alpha. Then start with:

java -cp clojure-1.9.0-alpha17.jar;spec.alpha-0.1.123.jar;core.specs.alpha-0.1.10.jar clojure.main

(Note, that your versions there will be different; and there will be : instad of ; for the unix family of OS).

How to find out about and fetch the other deps

With the recent change in Clojure to use dedicated artifacts for Spec in an alpha sub-namespace, it is no longer easy to start a simple REPL just with the regular jar (e.g. java -jar $CLOJURE_JAR clojure.main). So how to start it now?

As of before you are better off to do a lein new somewhere, change the org.clojure/clojure dependency to the version you like and do a lein deps :tree to fetch all that is needed and display what things org.clojure/core now depends on. E.g.

[org.clojure/clojure "1.9.0-alpha17"]
   [org.clojure/core.specs.alpha "0.1.10" :exclusions [[org.clojure/clojure] [org.clojure/spec.alpha]]]
   [org.clojure/spec.alpha "0.1.123" :exclusions [[org.clojure/clojure]]]

All your artifacts end up in ~/.m2/repository. So next you have to build up your classpath to call the REPL. You can now run lein with-profile uberjar cp in that dummy project to get the class path Leiningen is using. E.g.:

$ lein with-profile uberjar cp
/tmp/xxx/test:/tmp/xxx/src:/tmp/xxx/resources:/tmp/xxx/target/classes:/home/user/.m2/repository/org/clojure/clojure/1.9.0/clojure-1.9.0.jar:/home/user/.m2/repository/org/clojure/spec.alpha/0.1.143/spec.alpha-0.1.143.jar:/home/user/.m2/repository/org/clojure/core.specs.alpha/0.1.24/core.specs.alpha-0.1.24.jar
# this will be `;` instead of `:` as well here for windows

Remove the test, src, and resources ones and that is, what you have to pass to -cp.

Future solution

As stated in the Getting Started the clojure CLI is not yet available for Windows.