Install Elm 0.18.0 in 2021

Photo by Florian Olivo on Unsplash

So long story short:

• I got a new client working on an Elixir Project
• The previous developers used an old version of Elm 0.18.0 (yes, it was old when they started)
• That version of elm is no longer support nor are the binaries available where they used to be via NPM
• The application is basically no longer functional unless you’ve already got the system set up for it when various things, including elm 0.18.0 were still supported (which yeah they do — go figure).
• I’m not going to get into the mess of a codebase, let’s just dig in!

Installation — you need the old binaries

Step 1: Download Elm Binary from the Github Archives.

• Also for reference: elm-binaries

curl -L -o elm.tar.gz https://github.com/lydell/elm-old-binaries/releases/download/main/0.18.0-linux-x64.tar.gz

Step 2: Unpack The Elm Binary

• It will extract to a folder called dist_binaries

tar -xzf elm.tar.gz

Step 3: Make the Binaries Executable

chmod +x dist_binaries/*

Step 4: Move the Elm Binaries into your bin folder

mv dist_binaries/* /usr/local/bin/

Step 5: Check Elm in installed

• Should provide a list of valid commands

elm --help

Note

Ensure your Webpack.Config is set to the path of the elm binary command

{
   test: /\.elm$/,
   exclude: [
      /elm-stuff/, /node_modules/
   ],
   use: {
     loader: "elm-webpack-loader",
     options: {
        cwd: "elm",
     }
   }
},

That’s all folks!

Though I do hope no one ends up in a situation like this, if you’re already there I hope this helps!

Thanks for reading :)

Comment if you have any questions