Downloading the Cantera source code#

Stable Release#

Option 1: Check out the code using Git (recommended):
```
git clone --recursive https://github.com/Cantera/cantera.git
cd cantera
```
Then, check out the tag of the most recent stable version:
```
git checkout tags/v3.1.0
git submodule update
```
A list of all the tags can be shown by:
```
git tag --list
```
Option 2: Download the most recent source .tar.gz or .zip file from GitHub and extract the contents. In this case, several dependencies that are linked to the Cantera Git repository will not be available and will need to be installed elsewhere on your system.

Beta Release#

Check out the code using Git:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/Cantera/cantera.git
cd cantera

Then pick either Option 1 or Option 2 below.

Option 1: Check out the tag with the most recent beta release:
```
git checkout tags/v3.1.0b1
git submodule update
```
Note that the most recent beta version might be older than the most recent stable release. A list of all the tags, including stable and beta versions can be shown by:
```
git tag --list
```
Option 2: Check out the branch with all the bug fixes leading to the next minor release of the stable version:
```
git checkout 3.1
git submodule update
```
This branch has all the work on the 3.1.x version of the software.

If you’ve already checked out the 3.1 branch, you can get the latest updates from the main Cantera repository and synchronize your local repository by running:
```
git checkout 3.1
git fetch --all
git pull --ff-only
```

Next: Configure & Build Cantera

Development Version#

Check out the code using Git:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/Cantera/cantera.git
cd cantera

Note that by default, the main branch is checked out, containing all of the feature updates and bug fixes to the code since the previous stable release. The main branch is usually an alpha release, corresponding to the a in the version number, and does not usually get a tag.

If you’ve previously checked out the repository, and haven’t made any changes locally, you can get the latest updates from the main Cantera repository and synchronize your local repository by running:

git checkout main
git fetch --all
git pull --ff-only

Next: Configure & Build Cantera