Skip to content
configfile

Installation

Requirements

Section titled “Requirements”
  • macOS or Linux, on an Intel/AMD (x64) or ARM (arm64) processor
  • git (when it is missing, configfile says how to install it on your system)

Installed with Homebrew or npm, configfile also needs Node.js 24.11 or later (Homebrew installs it for you). The standalone binary doesn’t: it comes with its own, and needs macOS 13.5 or later, or Linux with the GNU C library 2.28 or later. Its install script needs curl or wget, which most systems have.

Install

Section titled “Install”

With one command

Section titled “With one command”

On a new machine, this is the quickest way: no package manager and no Node.js needed.

Terminal window
curl -fsSL https://docs.configfile.sh/install.sh | sh

The script downloads the standalone binary for your system from the latest GitHub release, checks it against the release’s SHA256SUMS, and installs it as ~/.local/bin/configfile, once it has checked that the binary starts on your system (a configfile already installed is otherwise left as it is). It says when that folder is not in your PATH, and how to add it. Two environment variables change what it does:

Variable Effect
CONFIGFILE_VERSION the version to install, instead of the latest (releases have binaries from the one that introduced them; 1.0.0 has none)
CONFIGFILE_INSTALL_DIR where to install it, instead of ~/.local/bin
Terminal window
# For every user of the machine (/usr/local/bin needs administrator rights).
curl -fsSL https://docs.configfile.sh/install.sh | sudo CONFIGFILE_INSTALL_DIR=/usr/local/bin sh

Run the command again to update configfile, with the same CONFIGFILE_INSTALL_DIR if you set one (configfile update syncs your dotfiles, not configfile itself). To uninstall it, delete ~/.local/bin/configfile; your configuration (~/.configfilerc, ~/.configfile/) stays.

On Linux, the binaries need the GNU C library: on Alpine (musl), or a system older than the requirements above, install with npm. On macOS, a binary downloaded with a web browser is quarantined by Gatekeeper, as it is not notarized: use the install script, or run xattr -d com.apple.quarantine configfile on it.

The binary’s own Node.js runs configfile only: a .js (.mjs, .cjs) script without a shebang line runs with the node in your PATH, and fails with a message saying so when Node.js is not installed.

With Homebrew

Section titled “With Homebrew”

On macOS or Linux (Node.js and git come with it):

Terminal window
brew install mindsers/tap/configfile

With npm

Section titled “With npm”

When Node.js 24.11 or later is installed, from the GitHub release:

Terminal window
npm install --global https://github.com/mindsers/configfile/releases/download/1.1.0/configfile-1.1.0.tgz

Install it one way only: two copies would compete in your PATH.

Versions 1.x are not on the npm registry yet: npm install --global configfile still installs 0.3.1.

Check a download

Section titled “Check a download”

Each release comes with a SHA256SUMS file, which the install script uses, and a build provenance attestation for each archive (the .tgz package and every .tar.gz binary), which shows it was built by the project’s release workflow from the tagged source. Download the archive, then:

Terminal window
gh attestation verify configfile-macos-arm64.tar.gz --repo mindsers/configfile