The first thing you need to do is check out a copy of the HOL repository from SourceForge. This is easy! There’s just one step:
svn co https://hol.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/hol/HOL
This will download a complete copy of all the current sources and install them in a directory called HOL. This is not the same thing as the source tree we distribute, but differs only slightly (it has more stuff). You will now have a copy of the sources and should be able to build hol in the normal way:
sml-system < tools/smart-configure.sml bin/build
(where sml-system is one of mosml
or poly).
The really nice thing about this copy of the sources is that if
there is a check-in changing the sources, you can automatically patch
your copy of the sources to reflect this by typing
svn update in the HOL directory. Also, the
svn stat command will tell you if you have modified
any of the files in the distribution by listing those files and
printing an M (for ‘modified’) beside them.
You can tell if there’s been a check-in by subscribing to the
hol-checkins mailing list. Subscribe to this mailing list here.
You can check the archives for the list (and see what you might be
letting yourself in for) by following the link on the above page.