N.B. This page is not required anymore

Since version 0.9.2 the mecab library and dictionary files have been embedded.

(Windows instructions, Linux instructions)

Installing from package

Mac users should try installing the package using the "port" utility, i.e. "sudo port install mecab mecab-ipadic-utf8". Note that the second package (the dictionary) is quite large so the installation job may take a while at the download stage.

Building from source

N.B. Akira has compiled but not successfully installed the source on Mac. Anyone who knows how, your comments would be appreciated!

The source can be obtained from the official MeCab downloads page. Two packages are required, the "mecab" and "mecab-ipadic". These are *.tar.gz archives that contain the typical configure and make scripts. Per the advice on the MeCab homepage:

Main package

 % tar zxfv mecab-X.X.tar.gz
 % cd mecab-X.X
 % ./configure --with-charset=utf8
 % make
 % make check
 % su
 # make install

Dictionary package

% tar zxfv mecab-ipadic-2.7.0-XXXX.tar.gz
% mecab-ipadic-2.7.0-XXXX
% ./configure --with-charset=utf8
% make
% su
# make install

Choice of dictionary encoding

Although sjis and eucjp config options (or prepared packages) for the dictionary files may exist, for Furigana Injector you must use the UTF-8 dictionary.

This advice is new- comments required

Mac users, your help is required to confirm the installation instructions above are complete for your distribution. Please attach comments below if you have an different example (e.g. you know a more suitable package that is available

If you can install MeCab okay but the Furigana Injector extension gives an error on starting firefox (e.g. 'XPCOM module could no be loaded'), please email "akira" at "yayakoshi" dot net rather than just leaving a comment.