Skip to content

installing-the-slack-cli-for-mac-and-linux.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
128 lines (83 loc) · 4.3 KB

installing-the-slack-cli-for-mac-and-linux.md

File metadata and controls

128 lines (83 loc) · 4.3 KB
sidebar_label Installing for MacOS & Linux
slug /tools/slack-cli/guides/installing-the-slack-cli-for-mac-and-linux

Installing the Slack CLI for Mac & Linux

The Slack CLI is a useful tool for building Slack apps. This is your one-stop shop for installing this tool.

Run the automated installer from your terminal window:

curl -fsSL https://downloads.slack-edge.com/slack-cli/install.sh | bash

This will install the Slack CLI and configure the command.

Runtime installations are left to the developer and depend on the app being built. For more information and next steps, review the quickstart guides:

Optional: use an alias for the Slack CLI binary

If you have another CLI tool in your path called slack, you can rename this slack binary to a different name to avoid errors during installation. The Slack CLI won't overwrite the existing one!

To do this, pass the -s argument and an alias to the automated installer:

curl -fsSL https://downloads.slack-edge.com/slack-cli/install.sh | bash -s <your-preferred-alias>

The alias you use should come after any flags used in the installer. For example, if you use the version flag your installation script might look like this:

curl -fsSL https://downloads.slack-edge.com/slack-cli/install.sh | bash -s -- -v 2.1.0 <your-preferred-alias>
Optional: download a specific version

The latest Slack CLI version is installed by default, but a particular version can be pinned using the -v flag:

curl -fsSL https://downloads.slack-edge.com/slack-cli/install.sh | bash -s -- -v 2.1.0
Troubleshooting: command not found

After running the Slack CLI installation script the slack command might not be available in the current shell. The download has often succeeded but a symbolic link to the command needs to be added to your path.

Determine which shell you're using then update your shell profile with the following commands:

basename "$SHELL"

  • bash:

    echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

  • fish:

    mkdir -p $HOME/.config/fish
echo 'fish_add_path $HOME/.local/bin' >> $HOME/.config/fish/config.fish
source $HOME/.config/fish/config.fish

  • zsh:

    echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

Once the profile is sourced, or a new shell is opened, the slack command should be available.

Manual installation allows you to customize certain paths used when installing the Slack CLI. Runtime installations are omitted from these steps but are still required to run an app.

1. Download and install Git, a dependency of the slack CLI.

2. Download the slack CLI installer for your environment.

🍎 ⚡️ Download for macOS Apple Silicon (.tar.gz)

🍏 🪨 Download for macOS Intel (.tar.gz)

🐧 💾 Download for Linux (.tar.gz)

3. Add the slack CLI to your path.

Create a symbolic link to the Slack CLI download from (or move the downloaded binary to) any folder that is already in your path.

In the following example we download the Slack CLI to the .slack directory and create a symbolic link to .local path:

ln -s "$HOME/.slack/bin/slack" "$HOME/.local/bin/slack"

We recommend using an alias if another slack binary exists. To do this, change the alias used at the end of the symbolic link to something else that makes sense, or rename the moved download to something special.

4. Verify that slack is installed and in your path.

$ slack version
Using slack v4.0.1