diff --git a/scripts/install.sh b/scripts/install.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..bb076ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/install.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,201 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+#
+# Installs dereko2vec and everything it needs, in one go:
+#
+#   1. the packages of the distribution (dnf, apt-get or brew)
+#   2. rocksdb, but only where the distribution has none or none with the
+#      static library (scripts/build-rocksdb.sh)
+#   3. collocatordb
+#   4. dereko2vec, with the fast static link of rocksdb and collocatordb
+#
+# Works on Fedora, Rocky Linux, RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu and MacOS.
+#
+# Options:
+#   --shared               link rocksdb and collocatordb shared (default:
+#                          static, which is about 22% faster when indexing)
+#   --prefix DIR           install there instead of /usr/local
+#   --rocksdb-prefix DIR   build rocksdb into DIR instead of $HOME/rocksdb
+#   --rocksdb-version V    build rocksdb version V instead of the one of the
+#                          distribution
+#   --skip-deps            do not install the packages of the distribution
+#   --skip-tests           do not run ctest
+#   --static-binary        build dereko2vec as a completely static binary
+#                          (needs static compression libraries, which Debian
+#                          and Ubuntu ship and Fedora, Rocky and RHEL do not)
+#   -j N                   build with N jobs (default: all cores)
+#
+set -euo pipefail
+
+DEREKO2VEC_SRC=$(cd "$(dirname "$0")/.." && pwd)
+PREFIX=/usr/local
+ROCKSDB_PREFIX=$HOME/rocksdb
+ROCKSDB_VERSION=
+STATIC=1
+STATIC_BINARY=0
+SKIP_DEPS=0
+SKIP_TESTS=0
+JOBS=
+
+usage() {
+    sed -n '2,26p' "$0"
+    exit "${1:-0}"
+}
+
+while [ $# -gt 0 ]; do
+    case $1 in
+        --shared)           STATIC=0; shift ;;
+        --static-binary)    STATIC_BINARY=1; shift ;;
+        --prefix)           PREFIX=$2; shift 2 ;;
+        --rocksdb-prefix)   ROCKSDB_PREFIX=$2; shift 2 ;;
+        --rocksdb-version)  ROCKSDB_VERSION=$2; shift 2 ;;
+        --skip-deps)        SKIP_DEPS=1; shift ;;
+        --skip-tests)       SKIP_TESTS=1; shift ;;
+        -j)                 JOBS=$2; shift 2 ;;
+        -h|--help)          usage 0 ;;
+        *) echo "Unknown option: $1" >&2; usage 1 ;;
+    esac
+done
+
+if [ -z "$JOBS" ]; then
+    JOBS=$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN 2> /dev/null || sysctl -n hw.ncpu)
+fi
+export CMAKE_BUILD_PARALLEL_LEVEL=$JOBS
+
+step() { printf '\n=== %s ===\n' "$*"; }
+
+# sudo only where the target is not writable
+if [ -w "$PREFIX" ] || { [ ! -e "$PREFIX" ] && [ -w "$(dirname "$PREFIX")" ]; }; then
+    SUDO=
+else
+    SUDO=sudo
+fi
+
+# The rocksdb and the compression libraries of homebrew are below
+# /opt/homebrew on Apple Silicon, which is not searched by default
+BREW_PREFIX=
+if command -v brew > /dev/null; then
+    BREW_PREFIX=$(brew --prefix)
+fi
+
+# --- 1. the packages of the distribution -------------------------------------
+if [ $SKIP_DEPS = 0 ]; then
+    step "Installing the packages of the distribution"
+    if command -v dnf > /dev/null; then
+        $SUDO dnf install -y cmake gcc-c++ git make pkgconf-pkg-config \
+             snappy-devel zlib-devel bzip2-devel lz4-devel libzstd-devel
+        # Rocky Linux and RHEL have no rocksdb-devel everywhere, that is what
+        # step 2 is for
+        $SUDO dnf install -y rocksdb-devel || true
+    elif command -v apt-get > /dev/null; then
+        $SUDO apt-get update
+        $SUDO apt-get install -y cmake g++ git make pkg-config \
+             librocksdb-dev libsnappy-dev zlib1g-dev libbz2-dev liblz4-dev libzstd-dev
+    elif command -v brew > /dev/null; then
+        brew install cmake rocksdb snappy zlib bzip2 lz4 zstd
+    else
+        echo "No dnf, apt-get or brew - install cmake, a C++ compiler, git, rocksdb" >&2
+        echo "and the devel packages of snappy, zlib, bzip2, lz4 and zstd by hand." >&2
+    fi
+fi
+
+# --- 2. rocksdb --------------------------------------------------------------
+static_rocksdb_of_the_distribution() {
+    local f
+    for f in /usr/lib64/librocksdb.a /usr/lib/librocksdb.a /usr/lib/*/librocksdb.a; do
+        [ -e "$f" ] && return 0
+    done
+    if command -v brew > /dev/null && brew list --versions rocksdb > /dev/null 2>&1; then
+        [ -e "$(brew --prefix rocksdb)/lib/librocksdb.a" ] && return 0
+    fi
+    return 1
+}
+
+DISTRO_ROCKSDB=
+if { command -v rpm > /dev/null && rpm -q rocksdb > /dev/null 2>&1; } ||
+   { command -v dpkg-query > /dev/null && dpkg-query -W librocksdb-dev > /dev/null 2>&1; } ||
+   { command -v brew > /dev/null && brew list --versions rocksdb > /dev/null 2>&1; }; then
+    DISTRO_ROCKSDB=1
+fi
+
+ROCKSDB_PREFIX_USED=
+ROCKSDB_SHARED_BUILT=0
+if [ -n "$DISTRO_ROCKSDB" ] && [ -z "$ROCKSDB_VERSION" ]; then
+    if [ $STATIC = 1 ] && ! static_rocksdb_of_the_distribution; then
+        step "rocksdb: building the static library, same version as the distribution"
+        "$DEREKO2VEC_SRC/scripts/build-rocksdb.sh" --static-only -p "$ROCKSDB_PREFIX"
+        ROCKSDB_PREFIX_USED=$ROCKSDB_PREFIX
+    else
+        step "rocksdb: the one of the distribution is used"
+    fi
+else
+    if [ -z "$DISTRO_ROCKSDB" ]; then
+        step "rocksdb: no rocksdb package - building the shared and the static library"
+    else
+        step "rocksdb: building version $ROCKSDB_VERSION as asked"
+    fi
+    "$DEREKO2VEC_SRC/scripts/build-rocksdb.sh" -p "$ROCKSDB_PREFIX" ${ROCKSDB_VERSION:+-v "$ROCKSDB_VERSION"}
+    ROCKSDB_PREFIX_USED=$ROCKSDB_PREFIX
+    ROCKSDB_SHARED_BUILT=1
+fi
+
+# Programs that link the shared rocksdb of the prefix have to find it. Only a
+# system-wide install can register the directory; for one below $HOME the
+# programs carry the rpath of the libraries they were linked against.
+if [ $ROCKSDB_SHARED_BUILT = 1 ] && [ "$(uname)" = Linux ] && [ -n "$SUDO" ]; then
+    RDB_LIBDIR=$(dirname "$(find "$ROCKSDB_PREFIX_USED" -name 'librocksdb.so' | head -1)")
+    echo "$RDB_LIBDIR" | $SUDO tee /etc/ld.so.conf.d/rocksdb-prefix.conf > /dev/null
+    $SUDO ldconfig
+fi
+
+# --- 3. collocatordb ---------------------------------------------------------
+step "collocatordb"
+WORK=$(mktemp -d)
+trap 'rc=$?; if [ $rc = 0 ]; then rm -rf "$WORK"; else echo "Keeping $WORK for a look at what went wrong" >&2; fi' EXIT
+git clone "https://korap.ids-mannheim.de/gerrit/ids-kl/collocatordb" "$WORK/collocatordb"
+CDB_PREFIXES=$ROCKSDB_PREFIX_USED
+if [ -n "$BREW_PREFIX" ]; then
+    CDB_PREFIXES=${CDB_PREFIXES:+$CDB_PREFIXES;}$BREW_PREFIX
+fi
+cmake -S "$WORK/collocatordb" -B "$WORK/collocatordb/build" \
+      -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="$PREFIX" \
+      ${CDB_PREFIXES:+-DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=$CDB_PREFIXES}
+cmake --build "$WORK/collocatordb/build" -j "$JOBS"
+$SUDO cmake --install "$WORK/collocatordb/build"
+if [ "$(uname)" = Linux ] && [ -n "$SUDO" ]; then
+    $SUDO ldconfig
+fi
+if [ $SKIP_TESTS = 0 ]; then
+    ctest --test-dir "$WORK/collocatordb/build" --output-on-failure
+fi
+
+# --- 4. dereko2vec -----------------------------------------------------------
+step "dereko2vec"
+# A stale build directory would silently keep the collocatordb and rocksdb it
+# was once configured with, and an install manifest of a root install breaks a
+# later install without sudo. Start over, the build takes a minute.
+rm -rf "$DEREKO2VEC_SRC/build"
+CMAKE_PREFIXES=$PREFIX
+if [ -n "$ROCKSDB_PREFIX_USED" ]; then
+    CMAKE_PREFIXES="$CMAKE_PREFIXES;$ROCKSDB_PREFIX_USED"
+fi
+if [ -n "$BREW_PREFIX" ]; then
+    CMAKE_PREFIXES="$CMAKE_PREFIXES;$BREW_PREFIX"
+fi
+STATIC_FLAG=
+if [ $STATIC_BINARY = 1 ]; then
+    STATIC_FLAG=-DSTATIC_DEREKO2VEC=ON
+elif [ $STATIC = 1 ]; then
+    STATIC_FLAG=-DSTATIC_ROCKSDB=ON
+fi
+cmake -S "$DEREKO2VEC_SRC" -B "$DEREKO2VEC_SRC/build" \
+      -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="$PREFIX" \
+      -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="$CMAKE_PREFIXES" \
+      $STATIC_FLAG
+cmake --build "$DEREKO2VEC_SRC/build" -j "$JOBS"
+if [ $SKIP_TESTS = 0 ]; then
+    ctest --test-dir "$DEREKO2VEC_SRC/build" --output-on-failure
+fi
+$SUDO cmake --install "$DEREKO2VEC_SRC/build"
+
+step "Done"
+echo "dereko2vec and vecs2mmap are in $PREFIX/bin"