Installation

Before You Start

To install lash, you will need to open your terminal. On macOS, search for “Terminal” in Spotlight (press Cmd + Space and type “Terminal”). On Linux, look for “Terminal” in your application menu.

Once you have the terminal open, follow the instructions for your system below.

macOS (Apple Silicon)

If you have a Mac with an Apple chip (M1, M2, M3, or newer), you can use Homebrew, a popular tool for installing software on macOS. If you already have Homebrew installed, run these two commands:

brew tap szabobogdan3/lash https://gitlab.com/szabobogdan3/homebrew-lash
brew install lash

The first line tells Homebrew where to find lash. The second line installs it.

macOS (Manual Install)

If you do not use Homebrew, or you have an Intel Mac, you can download lash directly from the releases page:

https://gitlab.com/szabobogdan3/lash/-/releases

Download the macOS binary, make it executable, and move it somewhere your system can find it:

chmod +x lash
sudo mv lash /usr/local/bin/

Debian / Ubuntu

Download the .deb package from the releases page:

https://gitlab.com/szabobogdan3/lash/-/releases

Then install it with:

sudo dpkg -i lash_*.deb

Requirement: Your system needs glibc version 2.34 or newer. Ubuntu 22.04 and Debian 12 (Bookworm) or later will work.

Fedora / RHEL

Download the .rpm package from the releases page:

https://gitlab.com/szabobogdan3/lash/-/releases

Then install it with:

sudo rpm -i lash_*.rpm

Requirement: Your system needs glibc version 2.34 or newer. Fedora 36 or RHEL 9 and later will work.

Arch Linux

Download the .pkg.tar.zst package from the releases page:

https://gitlab.com/szabobogdan3/lash/-/releases

Then install it with:

sudo pacman -U lash_*.pkg.tar.zst

Building from Source

If you want to build lash yourself, you will need a D language compiler — either LDC2 or DMD — plus the dub package manager (which comes bundled with both compilers).

Clone the repository and build:

git clone https://gitlab.com/szabobogdan3/lash.git
cd lash
dub build --compiler=ldc2 --build=release --config=application

The compiled binary will appear in the project directory.

Starting the Daemon

lash uses a background process called a daemon to manage sessions and keep things fast. You can start it manually:

lash -d

Or, if your system uses systemd (most Linux distributions), you can set it up as a service so it starts automatically when you log in. On macOS, you can use launchd for the same purpose.

Your First Run

Once lash is installed, just type:

lash

You should see the colorful powerline prompt, which means everything is working. If this is your very first time, run the interactive welcome tutorial:

lash --welcome

This will walk you through the basics right inside the shell.

Troubleshooting

• “command not found” — Make sure the lash binary is in a directory that your system searches for programs (like /usr/local/bin/).
• Daemon not running — If lash seems slow or certain features do not work, make sure you started the daemon with lash -d.
• Old glibc — If the package refuses to install, your system’s C library may be too old. Check with ldd --version.

You are all set. Time to type your first commands.