You can install pre-built binaries of |kitty| if you are on macOS or Linux using the following simple command:
curl -L https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/installer.sh | sh /dev/stdin
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.
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.
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 a symbolic link to add kitty to PATH (assuming ~/.local/bin is in
# your PATH)
ln -s ~/.local/kitty.app/bin/kitty ~/.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
# Update the path to the kitty icon in the kitty.desktop file
sed -i "s/Icon\=kitty/Icon\=\/home\/$USER\/.local\/kitty.app\/share\/icons\/hicolor\/256x256\/apps\/kitty.png/g" ~/.local/share/applications/kitty.desktop
You can specify a different install location, with
dest
:curl -L https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/installer.sh | sh /dev/stdin \ dest=/some/other/location
You can tell the installer not to launch |kitty| after installing it with
launch=n
:curl -L https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/installer.sh | sh /dev/stdin \ launch=n
You can use a previously downloaded dmg/tarball, with
installer
:curl -L https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/installer.sh | sh /dev/stdin \ installer=/path/to/dmg or tarball
All the installer does is copy the kitty files into the install directory. To uninstall, simply delete that directory.
|kitty| is easy to build from source, follow the :doc:`instructions <build>`.