Installing pandoc
The simplest way to get the latest pandoc release is to use the installer.
For alternative ways to install pandoc, see below under the heading for your operating system.
Note: the statically linked Pandoc binaries provided by us (or those available on Conda Forge) have a limitation. They are unable to utilise Lua filters that rely on Lua modules written in C. If you require the functionality offered by these filters, please consider an alternative method of installation.
Windows
There is a package installer at pandoc’s download page. This will install pandoc, replacing older versions, and update your path to include the directory where pandoc’s binaries are installed.
If you prefer not to use the msi installer, we also provide a zip file that contains pandoc’s binaries and documentation. Simply unzip this file and move the binaries to a directory of your choice.
Alternatively, you can install pandoc using Chocolatey:
choco install pandoc
Chocolatey can also install other software that integrates with
Pandoc. For example, to install rsvg-convert
(from librsvg,
covering formats without SVG support), Python (to use Pandoc filters),
and MiKTeX (to typeset PDFs with
LaTeX):
choco install rsvg-convert python miktex
Or, you can install pandoc using winget:
winget install --source winget --exact --id JohnMacFarlane.Pandoc
Or, you can install Pandoc using Conda forge.
Using multiple installation methods can result in two separate installations of pandoc; it is recommended to properly uninstall pandoc before switching to an alternative installation method.
By default, Pandoc creates PDFs using LaTeX. We recommend
installing it via MiKTeX. With
the option --pdf-engine
, you however can specify
other programs for this task.
macOS
There is a package installer at pandoc’s download
page. If you later want to uninstall the package, you can do
so by downloading this
script and running it with
perl uninstall-pandoc.pl
.
Alternatively, you can install pandoc using Homebrew:
brew install pandoc
Homebrew can also install other software that integrates with
Pandoc. For example, to install librsvg (its
rsvg-convert
covers formats without SVG support), Python (to use Pandoc filters),
and BasicTeX
(to typeset PDFs with LaTeX):
brew install librsvg python homebrew/cask/basictex
Note: On unsupported versions of macOS (more than three
releases old), Homebrew installs from source, which takes
additional time and disk space for the ghc
compiler
and dependent Haskell libraries.
Or, you can install Pandoc using Conda forge.
We also provide a zip file containing the binaries and man pages, for those who prefer not to use the installer. Simply unzip the file and move the binaries and man pages to whatever directory you like.
By default, Pandoc creates PDFs using LaTeX. Because a full MacTeX installation uses four
gigabytes of disk space, we recommend BasicTeX
or TinyTeX and using the
tlmgr
tool to install additional packages as needed.
If you receive errors warning of fonts not found:
tlmgr install collection-fontsrecommended
With the option --pdf-engine
, you however can
specify other programs for this task.
Linux
Check whether the pandoc version in your package manager is not outdated. Pandoc is in the Debian, Ubuntu, Slackware, Arch, Fedora, NixOS, openSUSE, gentoo and Void repositories.
To get the latest release, we provide a binary package for amd64 architecture on the download page.
The executable is statically linked and has no dynamic dependencies or dependencies on external data files.
Both a tarball and a deb installer are provided. To install the deb:
sudo dpkg -i $DEB
where $DEB
is the path to the downloaded deb. This
will install the pandoc
executable and man page.
If you use an RPM-based distro, you may be able to install the
deb from our download page using alien
.
On any distro, you may install from the tarball into
$DEST
(say, /usr/local/
or
$HOME/.local
) by doing
tar xvzf $TGZ --strip-components 1 -C $DEST
where $TGZ
is the path to the downloaded zipped
tarball. For Pandoc versions before 2.0, which don’t provide a
tarball, try instead
ar p $DEB data.tar.gz | tar xvz --strip-components 2 -C $DEST
Or, you can install Pandoc using Conda forge.
You can also install from source, using the instructions below
under Compiling from source.
Note that most distros have the Haskell platform in their package
repositories. For example, on Debian/Ubuntu, you can install it
with apt-get install haskell-platform
.
By default, Pandoc creates PDFs using LaTeX. We recommend
installing TeX Live via
your package manager. (On Debian/Ubuntu,
apt-get install texlive
.) With the option
--pdf-engine
, you however can specify other programs
for this task.
Chrome OS
On Chrome OS, pandoc can be installed using the chromebrew package manager with the command:
crew install pandoc
This will automatically build and configure pandoc for the specific device you are using.
BSD
Pandoc is in the NetBSD, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD ports repositories.
Conda Forge
You can install Pandoc using a Conda Forge
tool, like Conda, [Micro]Mamba
or Pixi. Conda forge also
includes multiple LaTeX and other relevant packages for Pandoc
(including pandoc-citeproc
, pandoc-plot
,
rsvg-convert
via librsvg
etc.).
Note: conda forge installs a statically-linked
executable.
conda install -c conda-forge pandoc
pixi global install pandoc
micromamba install pandoc
Docker
The official Docker images for pandoc can be found at https://github.com/pandoc/dockerfiles and at dockerhub.
The pandoc/core image
contains pandoc
.
The pandoc/latex image also contains the minimal LaTeX installation needed to produce PDFs using pandoc.
To run pandoc using Docker, converting README.md
to README.pdf
:
docker run --rm --volume "`pwd`:/data" --user `id -u`:`id -g` pandoc/latex README.md -o README.pdf
GitHub Actions
Pandoc can be run through GitHub Actions. For some examples, see https://github.com/pandoc/pandoc-action-example.
GitLab CI/CD
Pandoc can be run through GitLab CI/CD. For some examples, see https://gitlab.com/pandoc/pandoc-ci-example.
Compiling from source
If for some reason a binary package is not available for your platform, or if you want to hack on pandoc or use a non-released version, you can install from source.
Getting the pandoc source code
Source tarballs can be found at https://hackage.haskell.org/package/pandoc. For example, to fetch the source for version 1.17.0.3:
wget https://hackage.haskell.org/package/pandoc-1.17.0.3/pandoc-1.17.0.3.tar.gz
tar xvzf pandoc-1.17.0.3.tar.gz
cd pandoc-1.17.0.3
Or you can fetch the development code by cloning the repository:
git clone https://github.com/jgm/pandoc
cd pandoc
Note: there may be times when the development code is broken or depends on other libraries which must be installed separately. Unless you really know what you’re doing, install the last released version.
Quick stack method
The easiest way to build pandoc from source is to use stack:
Install stack. Note that Pandoc requires stack >= 1.7.0.
stack setup stack install pandoc-cli
stack setup
will automatically download the ghc compiler if you don’t have it.stack install
will install thepandoc
executable into~/.local/bin
, which you should add to yourPATH
. This process will take a while, and will consume a considerable amount of disk space.
Quick cabal method
Install ghcup. This will give you
ghc
andcabal
.Update your package database:
cabal update
Use
cabal
to install pandoc and its dependencies:cabal install pandoc-cli
This procedure will install the released version of pandoc, which will be downloaded automatically from HackageDB. The
pandoc
executable will be placed in$HOME/.cabal/bin
on linux/unix/macOS and in%APPDATA%\cabal\bin
on Windows. Make sure this directory is in your path.If you want to install a modified or development version of pandoc instead, switch to the source directory before running the above command – cabal will use the local code for all projects mentioned in the
cabal.project
.You should now be able to run
pandoc
:pandoc --help
Cabal does not install the
pandoc.1
man page, but you can copy it from theman/
directory of the source code to/usr/local/share/man/man1/
or wherever man pages go on your system.
Custom cabal method
This is a step-by-step procedure that offers maximal control over the build and installation. Most users should use the quick install, but this information may be of use to packagers. For more details, see the Cabal User’s Guide. These instructions assume that the pandoc source directory is your working directory. You will need cabal version 2.0 or higher.
Install dependencies: in addition to the Haskell platform, you will need a number of additional libraries. You can install them all with
cabal update cabal install --only-dependencies
Configure:
cabal configure --prefix=DIR --bindir=DIR --libdir=DIR \ --datadir=DIR --libsubdir=DIR --datasubdir=DIR --docdir=DIR \ --htmldir=DIR --program-prefix=PREFIX --program-suffix=SUFFIX \ --mandir=DIR --flags=FLAGSPEC --enable-tests
All of the options have sensible defaults that can be overridden as needed.
FLAGSPEC
is a list of Cabal configuration flags, optionally preceded by a-
(to force the flag tofalse
), and separated by spaces.pandoc
’s flags include:embed_data_files
: embed all data files into the binary (default no). This is helpful if you want to create a relocatable binary.
pandoc-cli
’s flags include:lua
: compile in support for Lua filters and custom writers.server
: compile in support for running in HTTP server mode when the executable is renamed (or symlinked as)pandoc-server
.
Build:
cabal build cabal test
Build API documentation:
cabal haddock --html-location=URL --hyperlink-source
Creating a relocatable binary
It is possible to compile pandoc such that the data files
pandoc uses are embedded in the binary. The resulting binary can
be run from any directory and is completely self-contained. With
cabal, add -fembed_data_files
to the
cabal configure
or cabal install
commands.
With stack, use
--flag pandoc:embed_data_files
.
Running tests
Pandoc comes with an automated test suite. To run with cabal,
cabal test
; to run with stack,
stack test
.
To run particular tests (pattern-matching on their names), use
the -p
option:
cabal test --test-options='-p markdown'
Or with stack:
stack test --test-arguments='-p markdown'
It is often helpful to add -j4
(run tests in
parallel) and --hide-successes
(don’t clutter output
with successes) to the test arguments as well.
If you add a new feature to pandoc, please add tests as well,
following the pattern of the existing tests. The test suite code
is in test/test-pandoc.hs
. If you are adding a new
reader or writer, it is probably easiest to add some data files to
the test
directory, and modify
test/Tests/Old.hs
. Otherwise, it is better to modify
the module under the test/Tests
hierarchy
corresponding to the pandoc module you are changing.
Running benchmarks
To build and run the benchmarks:
cabal configure --enable-benchmarks && cabal build
cabal bench
or with stack:
stack bench
To use a smaller sample size so the benchmarks run faster:
cabal bench --benchmark-options='-s 20'
To run just the markdown benchmarks:
cabal bench --benchmark-options='markdown'