2.3 Installation

The easiest way to install and keep SLIME up-to-date is using Emacs’s built-in package manager. SLIME is available from the MELPA repository. After setting up the MELPA repository, SLIME can be installed via M-x package-install RET slime RET. You should then define your default Lisp in your .emacs as follows:

(setq inferior-lisp-program "/opt/sbcl/bin/sbcl")

At this point, you should be ready to start running SLIME.

This is the minimal configuration with the fewest frills. If the basic setup is working, you can try additional modules (Loading Contribs).

2.3.1 Installing from Git

If you’d rather install SLIME directly from its git repository, you will need to add a few extra lines in your .emacs:

;; Setup load-path, autoloads and your lisp system
;; Not needed if you install SLIME via MELPA
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/dir/to/cloned/slime")
(require 'slime-autoloads)
(setq inferior-lisp-program "/opt/sbcl/bin/sbcl")

You may optionally byte-compile SLIME using make compile contrib-compile.