Lean files are organized in projects called packages. Projects are
git repositories containing a leanpkg.toml
file specifying the Lean
version and all required dependencies alongside the src/
subdirectory
containing the Lean code. The tool
leanproject
manages project creation and dependencies.
We will now create a new project depending on mathlib. The following commands should be typed in a terminal.
-
If you have not logged in since you installed Lean and mathlib, then you need to first type
source ~/.profile
. -
Then go to a folder where you want to create a project in a subfolder
my_project
, and typeleanproject new my_project
. -
Launch VS Code, either through your application menu or by typing
code my_project
. -
If you launched VS Code through a menu: on the main screen, or in the File menu, click "Open folder" (on a Mac, just "Open"), and choose the folder
my_project
(not one of its subfolders). -
Your Lean code should now be put inside files with extension
.lean
living inmy_project/src/
or a subfolder thereof. In the file explorer on the left-hand side of VS Code, you can right-click onsrc
, chooseNew file
, and type a filename to create a file there.
If you want to make sure everything is working, you can start by
creating, say my_project/src/test.lean
containing:
import topology.basic
#check topological_space
When the cursor is on the last line, the right hand part of VS Code
should display a "Lean Goal" area saying:
topological_space : Type u_1 → Type u_1
If, for some reason, you happen to lose the "Lean Goal" area, you can get it back with Ctrl-Shift-Enter (Cmd-Shift-Enter on MacOS). Also, you can get the Lean documentation inside VS Code using Ctrl-Shift-p (Cmd-Shift-p on MacOS) and then, inside the text field that appears, type "lean doc" and hit Enter. Then click "Theorem Proving in Lean" and enjoy.
Suppose you want to work on an existing project. As example, we will take the tutorial project. Open a terminal.
-
If you have not logged in since you installed Lean and mathlib, then you need to first type
source ~/.profile
. -
Go the the directory where you would like this package to live.
-
Run
leanproject get tutorials
. -
Launch VS Code, either through your application menu or by typing
code tutorials
. (MacOS users need to take a one-off extra step to be able to launch VS Code from the command line.) -
If you launched VS Code from a menu, on the main screen, or in the File menu, click "Open folder" (just "Open" on a Mac), and choose the folder
tutorials
(not one of its subfolders). -
Using the file explorer on the left-hand side, explore everything you want in
tutorials/src
.