# kerl/kerl

Easy building and installing of Erlang/OTP instances

Repository: https://github.com/kerl/kerl
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/kerl
Language: Shell
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: erlang, otp-release, kerl, homebrew, shell
Last push: 2025-06-19T17:26:34+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 38/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 27, release rhythm 16, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5538, "days_push": 440, "days_rel": 440, "gap_med": 134.0, "n_releases_24m": 3}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1664, forks 237 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:18.900828+00:00)

## What it is
kerl is a POSIX shell script for easily building and installing Erlang/OTP instances. It tracks downloaded and built releases so new installations are fast and switching between Erlang/OTP versions is simple.

## Use cases
- install a specific Erlang/OTP release
- manage multiple Erlang versions on one machine
- switch between Erlang/OTP installations
- build Erlang from a git repository
- list available Erlang/OTP releases

## When to choose
- you need multiple Erlang/OTP versions side by side
- you want a dependency-light shell-based version manager
- you need to build Erlang from source or a git repo

## When to avoid
- you just need Erlang via your system package manager
- you want precompiled binaries without building from source
- you are not working with Erlang/OTP

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: build-tool, package-manager, cli, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools, programming-languages
- platform: bsd, cli
- tags: erlang, otp, version-manager, shell, posix-shell, command-line, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- kerl/kerl (main) score 38

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:18.900828+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T03:44:29.531227+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/kerl/kerl (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:18.900828+00:00, sha 8b63b5be3c01)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.