Installation

Instructions

Windows

To start using LakeXpress, first request a trial to download the latest version.

Once downloaded, unzip LakeXpress to a directory of your choice.

Expand-Archive -Path .\LakeXpress.zip -DestinationPath .\LakeXpress

You can verify the installation by checking the version:

.\LakeXpress.exe --version

The output shows the version and the date the binary was built, for example LakeXpress 0.4.10 (build 2026-09-24T12:04:58Z). The build date is shown from version 0.4.9 onwards.

Linux

To start using LakeXpress, first request a trial to download the latest version.

Once downloaded, unzip LakeXpress to a directory of your choice.

unzip LakeXpress.zip -d LakeXpress

On Linux, you need to give execution rights to the LakeXpress binary:

chmod +x LakeXpress

You can verify the installation by checking the version:

./LakeXpress --version

The output shows the version and the date the binary was built, for example LakeXpress 0.4.10 (build 2026-09-24T12:04:58Z). The build date is shown from version 0.4.9 onwards.

Next step: LakeXpress needs a database of its own to store its configurations and run history. See Set up the LakeXpress DB.

What's Included

The trial edition has the following layout:

Windows

LakeXpress/
├── LakeXpress.exe           - Main executable
├── README.txt               - Quick reference
├── LakeXpress-sbom.*        - Software Bill of Materials (JSON, XML) and checksums
└── engine/
    └── FastBCP.exe          - Bundled FastBCP engine (auto-discovered)

Linux

LakeXpress/
├── LakeXpress               - Main executable
├── README.txt               - Quick reference
├── LakeXpress-sbom.*        - Software Bill of Materials (JSON, XML) and checksums
└── engine/
    └── FastBCP              - Bundled FastBCP engine (auto-discovered)

Bundled FastBCP Engine

Trial editions include a bundled FastBCP engine in the engine/ directory that is auto-discovered — no need to specify --fastbcp_dir_path.

The full edition does not bundle FastBCP yet: install FastBCP separately and pass its folder with --fastbcp_dir_path. FastBCP needs its own license file, named exactly FastBCP.lic and placed next to the FastBCP binary (rename the downloaded SUBSCRIPTION-FastBCP-….lic file).

License Information

License Information

After the trial period you will need a valid license. LakeXpress resolves the license in the following order:

1. LAKEXPRESS_LICENSE environment variable — set this for CI/CD or containerized deployments
2. --license TEXT CLI argument — pass the license content directly
3. --license_file PATH CLI argument — point to a license file
4. Default file locations:
   • ~/.lakexpress/license.lic (Linux/Mac)
   • %APPDATA%/LakeXpress/license.lic (Windows)
   • ./license.lic (current directory)
5. Trial mode — if no license is found, LakeXpress runs as a trial for 30 days from the build date of the binary (shown by --version). Trial downloads are rebuilt every week, so a freshly downloaded trial has at least 23 days left.

See the CLI Reference for details.