binary.rst

Install kitty

Binary install

You can install pre-built binaries of |kitty| if you are on macOS or Linux using the following simple command:

_kitty_install_cmd

The binaries will be installed in the standard location for your OS, :file:`/Applications/kitty.app` on macOS and :file:`~/.local/kitty.app` on Linux. The installer only touches files in that directory. To update kitty, simply re-run the command.

Warning

Do not copy the kitty binary out of the installation folder. If you want to add it to your :envvar:`PATH`, create a symlink in :file:`~/.local/bin` or :file:`/usr/bin` or wherever. You should create a symlink for the :file:`kitten` binary as well.

Manually installing

If something goes wrong or you simply do not want to run the installer, you can manually download and install |kitty| from the GitHub releases page. If you are on macOS, download the :file:`.dmg` and install as normal. If you are on Linux, download the tarball and extract it into a directory. The |kitty| executable will be in the :file:`bin` sub-directory.

Desktop integration on Linux

If you want the kitty icon to appear in the taskbar and an entry for it to be present in the menus, you will need to install the :file:`kitty.desktop` file. The details of the following procedure may need to be adjusted for your particular desktop, but it should work for most major desktop environments.

# Create symbolic links to add kitty and kitten to PATH (assuming ~/.local/bin is in
# your system-wide PATH)
ln -sf ~/.local/kitty.app/bin/kitty ~/.local/kitty.app/bin/kitten ~/.local/bin/
# Place the kitty.desktop file somewhere it can be found by the OS
cp ~/.local/kitty.app/share/applications/kitty.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/
# If you want to open text files and images in kitty via your file manager also add the kitty-open.desktop file
cp ~/.local/kitty.app/share/applications/kitty-open.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/
# Update the paths to the kitty and its icon in the kitty desktop file(s)
sed -i "s|Icon=kitty|Icon=$(readlink -f ~)/.local/kitty.app/share/icons/hicolor/256x256/apps/kitty.png|g" ~/.local/share/applications/kitty*.desktop
sed -i "s|Exec=kitty|Exec=$(readlink -f ~)/.local/kitty.app/bin/kitty|g" ~/.local/share/applications/kitty*.desktop
# Make xdg-terminal-exec (and hence desktop environments that support it use kitty)
echo 'kitty.desktop' > ~/.config/xdg-terminals.list

Note

In :file:`kitty-open.desktop`, kitty is registered to handle some supported MIME types. This will cause kitty to take precedence on some systems where the default apps are not explicitly set. For example, if you expect to use other GUI file managers to open dir paths when using commands such as :program:`xdg-open`, you should configure the default opener for the MIME type inode/directory:

xdg-mime default org.kde.dolphin.desktop inode/directory

Note

If you use the venerable stow command to manage your manual installations, the following takes care of the above for you (use with dest=~/.local/stow):

cd ~/.local/stow
stow -v kitty.app

Customizing the installation

• You can install the latest nightly kitty build with installer:

  _kitty_install_cmd \
      installer=nightly

  If you want to install it in parallel to the released kitty specify a different install locations with dest:

  _kitty_install_cmd \
      installer=nightly dest=/some/other/location

• You can specify a specific version to install, with:

  _kitty_install_cmd \
      installer=version-0.35.2

• You can tell the installer not to launch |kitty| after installing it with launch=n:

  _kitty_install_cmd \
      launch=n

• You can use a previously downloaded dmg/tarball, with installer:

  _kitty_install_cmd \
      installer=/path/to/dmg or tarball

Uninstalling

All the installer does is copy the kitty files into the install directory. To uninstall, simply delete that directory.

Building from source

|kitty| is easy to build from source, follow the :doc:`instructions <build>`.