This script will install dependencies and then build and install erlang using kerl on Ubuntu

build-erlang.sh

#!/bin/bash
# This script will install dependencies then build and install erlang using kerl
# Pull this file down, make it executable and run it with sudo
# 
# wget https://gist.githubusercontent.com/bryanhunter/adbd9c8d9fb2f6366eee/raw/build-erlang.sh
# chmod u+x build-erlang.sh
# sudo ./build-erlang.sh
# 
# Version: 17.1


if [ $(id -u) != "0" ]; then
echo "You must be the superuser to run this script" >&2
exit 1
fi
apt-get update

# Install curl (needed by kerl)
apt-get -y install curl

# Install the build tools (dpkg-dev g++ gcc libc6-dev make)
apt-get -y install build-essential

# automatic configure script builder (debianutils m4 perl)
apt-get -y install autoconf

# Needed for HiPE (native code) support, but already installed by autoconf
# apt-get -y install m4

# Needed for terminal handling (libc-dev libncurses5 libtinfo-dev libtinfo5 ncurses-bin)
apt-get -y install libncurses5-dev

# For building with wxWidgets (observer needs this)
apt-get -y install libwxgtk2.8-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libglu1-mesa-dev libpng3

# For building ssl (libssh-4 libssl-dev zlib1g-dev)
apt-get -y install libssh-dev

# ODBC support (libltdl3-dev odbcinst1debian2 unixodbc)
apt-get -y install unixodbc-dev

# Get rebar
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wiki/rebar/rebar/rebar
chmod a+x rebar
mv rebar /usr/local/bin

# Get kerl, build, install, and activate Erlang
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yrashk/kerl/master/kerl
chmod a+x kerl
mv kerl /usr/local/bin
kerl update releases
kerl build 17.1 17.1
kerl install 17.1 /opt/erlang/17.1

# This will make the erlang installation active (in the path)
echo '. /opt/erlang/17.1/activate' >> ~/.bashrc