F# Open Source code drops

F# source code is available under the Apache 2.0 license. Currently, the F# team doesn't accept community contributions, but you are, of course, free to modify the source code, build it and redistribute it as you wish. The release model is best described in the announcement:

After some discussion, we've decided to [release F# source code] via a "code drop" model, where we make available versions of the compiler+library code logically matching each release of the F# language itself. In the F# team, releases of F# are matched to coincide with releases of Visual Studio itself: using this release cadence simplifies our development processes and gives clarity to language versioning. This means the code we are making available today is for the F# 2.0 language, released in April 2010, including the small changes for the MSI tools updates through November 2010. We expect to make matching code drops if/when service pack(s) of Visual Studio 2010 are released, though sometimes it may take a while for us to get that out the door.
See also: Announcing the F# Compiler + Library Source Code Drop

If you want to build the F# compiler and tools from the source code, you have two options. On Windows you can use the official source code at CodePlex. In the source, look for the compiler directory and follow the instructions in the README.html.

For other platforms, the source code used to compile F# as part of Mono is available under the F# Open Source community on GitHub. It contains a copy of the source code distributed via the official F# Source Code drops with some small modifications for the Linux, Mac and Mono environments. The repository is not a fork of the F# compiler - it is just a clone that contains additional machinery needed to compile F# using standard open-source tools.

To build F# from the GitHub repository, clone the repository and follow the instructions in the README.

Additional Resources

If you're interested in the open-source release and cross-platform support for F#, you may also find the following resources useful:

  • The F# Open Source community on GitHub also hosts source code for the F# plugin for MonoDevelop. If you're interested in improving the plugin or adding some new features, you're welcome to visit the developer wiki.
  • To stay up-to-date with the latest news about open-source version of F#, to submit bug reports for the open-source compilation process and to discuss the development of F# plugin for MonoDevelop, you can also join the fsharp-opensource mailing list.
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