--- title: "Installation" description: "Where to get CAT CLI on Windows, Linux and macOS, how to update it and how to remove it" url: "https://docs.justcat.it/reference/cat-cli/installation/" --- # Installation CAT CLI has no dependency on PowerShell and no dependency on a separately installed .NET runtime. That makes it the tool to reach for on machines where PowerShell 7 cannot be installed, or where a runtime cannot be managed. Pick your platform below. In every command, `` is the version you are installing — the [Releases](https://docs.justcat.it/releases/ "Releases") page names the current one and carries every file with its SHA256 hash. ## Windows ### Where to get it There are two equal routes; pick the one that fits the machine. **Download the installer from the [Releases](https://docs.justcat.it/releases/ "Releases") page of this site.** The page always carries the latest `cat-cli--setup.exe` with its SHA256 hash; the installer is digitally signed and is a plain next-next-next wizard with nothing to configure. This is the route for machines without WinGet, without access to the WinGet source, for a download you want to keep and redistribute internally, or simply when you prefer a file you can inspect and hash before running it. To check the download, `certutil -hashfile cat-cli--setup.exe SHA256` prints its hash; it must match the one shown on the Releases page. **Or install from WinGet:** ``` winget install DataTools.CATCLI ``` Both routes install the same program to the same place and register it the same way; `winget upgrade` and the installer can be used interchangeably on one machine. ### Prerequisites Windows 10 or later, or Windows Server 2016 or later. The Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable (x64) must be present — it is a common component, so it usually already is, and CAT CLI 3.0 and later bundles it in the installer. Microsoft publishes it at . ### Verify the installation ``` catcli --version ``` The command prints the installed version. `catcli` resolves from any directory once the installation has put it on `PATH`; a terminal opened before the installation has to be restarted to see it. ### Update Download the newer installer from the [Releases](https://docs.justcat.it/releases/ "Releases") page and run it over the existing installation, or, with WinGet: ``` winget upgrade DataTools.CATCLI ``` Pin the version in automated processes: install one specific version and keep pipelines on it, rather than picking up whatever is current. Keeping the downloaded installer is the simplest way to reinstall exactly that version elsewhere. ### Uninstall Remove CAT CLI as any other Windows application — **Settings → Apps → Installed apps → CAT CLI → Uninstall** — or with WinGet: ``` winget uninstall DataTools.CATCLI ``` ## Linux ### Where to get it CAT CLI ships as a `tar.gz` archive per architecture: `cat-cli--linux-x64.tar.gz` and `cat-cli--linux-arm64.tar.gz`. Run `uname -m` to see which one you need — `x86_64` means x64, `aarch64` or `arm64` means arm64. The x64 archive is about 88 MB. Download it, verify the hash, unpack it into `/opt/catcli` and link the binary onto `PATH`. The lines are chained with `&&`, so a failed hash check stops the sequence before anything is unpacked. The machine needs `curl` and ICU first — see *Prerequisites* below. Drop each `sudo` if you are already root, as in a container: ```bash curl -fLO https://docs.justcat.it/releases/cat-cli--linux-x64.tar.gz && \ curl -fLO https://docs.justcat.it/releases/cat-cli--linux-x64.tar.gz.sha256 && \ sha256sum -c cat-cli--linux-x64.tar.gz.sha256 && \ sudo rm -rf /opt/catcli && \ sudo mkdir -p /opt/catcli && \ sudo tar -xzf cat-cli--linux-x64.tar.gz -C /opt/catcli && \ sudo ln -sfn /opt/catcli/catcli /usr/local/bin/catcli ``` Without root, install into your home directory instead: ```bash curl -fLO https://docs.justcat.it/releases/cat-cli--linux-x64.tar.gz && \ curl -fLO https://docs.justcat.it/releases/cat-cli--linux-x64.tar.gz.sha256 && \ sha256sum -c cat-cli--linux-x64.tar.gz.sha256 && \ rm -rf ~/.local/opt/catcli && \ mkdir -p ~/.local/opt/catcli ~/.local/bin && \ tar -xzf cat-cli--linux-x64.tar.gz -C ~/.local/opt/catcli && \ ln -sfn ~/.local/opt/catcli/catcli ~/.local/bin/catcli ``` `~/.local/bin` is on `PATH` on most distributions from your next login; for the terminal you are in, run `export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"`. Homebrew works on Linux too, and installs the same archive — see the macOS section for `brew install justcatit/cat/catcli`. ### Prerequisites An x64 or arm64 machine and a glibc-based distribution (Ubuntu, Debian, RHEL, Fedora, SUSE and their relatives). Two packages have to be there before the install block runs: * **`curl`** (with `ca-certificates`) downloads the archive. * **ICU** — the Unicode library CAT compares and formats text and dates through. Without it `catcli` stops at startup with *Couldn't find a valid ICU package installed on the system*. **`libgdiplus`** is needed only if the project writes an **Excel output**; nothing else uses it. Desktop distributions have all of these already. A server or a minimal container image usually does not — install them first: **Ubuntu / Debian** ```bash sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y curl ca-certificates libicu-dev ``` `libicu-dev` brings in the ICU library your release ships (`libicu74` on Ubuntu 24.04, `libicu72` on Debian 12) without you having to know its versioned name. For Excel output add `libgdiplus`. **Fedora / RHEL** ```bash sudo dnf install -y curl ca-certificates libicu ``` For Excel output add `libgdiplus`. **Other distributions** Install the package that provides the ICU library — `libicu` on openSUSE (`zypper install libicu`), `icu` on Arch (`pacman -S icu`) — plus `curl`, and `libgdiplus` for Excel output. Alpine and other musl-based distributions are not supported: CAT CLI is built against glibc. ### Verify the installation ```bash catcli --version catcli instance -s ``` The first prints the version; the second shows this installation, with `Platform` reading `Linux`. ### Update Run the install block above with the new version. It replaces `/opt/catcli` (or `~/.local/opt/catcli`) and the symlink keeps working. Extracting the new archive *over* the old folder is not enough: `tar` merges, so a file the new version no longer ships would stay behind. Pin the version in automated processes: install one specific version and keep pipelines on it, rather than picking up whatever is current. ### Uninstall ```bash sudo rm -f /usr/local/bin/catcli && sudo rm -rf /opt/catcli ``` For a home-directory installation: `rm -f ~/.local/bin/catcli && rm -rf ~/.local/opt/catcli`. ## macOS **macOS is a preview.** The macOS build comes from the same source as the Windows and Linux ones, but we do not yet run it on a Mac ourselves before a release — reports of anything that does not work are very welcome. ### Where to get it **Homebrew is the route to take.** The formula lives in our own tap: ```bash brew install justcatit/cat/catcli ``` Homebrew downloads the archive for your chip, checks its hash and puts `catcli` on `PATH`. Nothing it installs is quarantined, so there is no Gatekeeper dialog. **Without Homebrew**, take the archive for your chip — `cat-cli--osx-arm64.tar.gz` for Apple silicon (M1 and later), `cat-cli--osx-x64.tar.gz` for an Intel Mac; the Apple menu → *About This Mac* names the chip: ```bash curl -fLO https://docs.justcat.it/releases/cat-cli--osx-arm64.tar.gz && \ curl -fLO https://docs.justcat.it/releases/cat-cli--osx-arm64.tar.gz.sha256 && \ shasum -a 256 -c cat-cli--osx-arm64.tar.gz.sha256 && \ sudo rm -rf /opt/catcli && \ sudo mkdir -p /opt/catcli /usr/local/bin && \ sudo tar -xzf cat-cli--osx-arm64.tar.gz -C /opt/catcli && \ sudo ln -sfn /opt/catcli/catcli /usr/local/bin/catcli ``` Download with `curl` rather than with the browser. CAT CLI carries no Apple developer signature, and macOS quarantines whatever a browser saved; a file `curl` saved is not quarantined, and neither is anything Homebrew installed. If a browser download did end up in `/opt/catcli` and `catcli` is blocked at launch, clear the flag from the whole folder: ```bash sudo xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /opt/catcli ``` ### Prerequisites macOS on Apple silicon or on Intel. **`libgdiplus`** is needed only if the project writes an **Excel output**: ```bash brew install mono-libgdiplus ``` ### Verify the installation ```bash catcli --version catcli instance -s ``` The first prints the version; the second shows this installation, with `Platform` reading `macOS`. ### Update ```bash brew upgrade catcli ``` Without Homebrew, run the install block above with the new version — it replaces `/opt/catcli`. If Homebrew installed CAT CLI, stay with `brew upgrade`: on an Intel Mac the block would overwrite Homebrew's own symlink in `/usr/local/bin`. ### Uninstall ```bash brew uninstall catcli ``` Without Homebrew: `sudo rm -f /usr/local/bin/catcli && sudo rm -rf /opt/catcli`. ## What differs off Windows The same program, the same project files, the same results. Two things are not there on Linux and macOS: * The providers built on Windows components — `Dax@1`, `Dax@2`, `PowerBI@1`, `PowerBI@2`, `CsvOleDB@1`, `ExcelOleDB@1` — are **Windows-only**. Databases, CSV and YAML files, the JSON/YAML/JUnit/TRX and database outputs — all there. * The **Excel output** needs `libgdiplus` installed (see the prerequisites above). File names are also case-sensitive on Linux, and on macOS depending on the volume: a `*.cat.yaml` project file must be spelled with that case. ## Providers that need extra software Some data source providers need additional software installed on the machine. The requirement belongs to the provider, not to CAT CLI — each provider page states what it needs, and the [Providers overview](https://docs.justcat.it/reference/data-sources/providers/overview/ "Providers overview") marks which providers need a driver. Uninstalling CAT CLI removes the tool only. Project files, test definitions and results stay where they are.