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Enterprise Open source

Install gcx

Quick install using the script

The fastest way to install gcx on Linux or macOS is with the script:

sh 
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/grafana/gcx/main/scripts/install.sh | sh

The script:

  • Detects your operating system and architecture.
  • Downloads the latest release from GitHub
  • Verifies the SHA-256 checksum.
  • Installs the binary to ~/.local/bin.

Installer configuration options

Use these environment variables to customize the install script:

Environment variableDefaultDescription
INSTALL_DIR$HOME/.local/binDirectory to install the binary into
VERSIONlatestSpecific version to install (e.g., 0.2.4)
GITHUB_TOKENunsetGitHub token for API requests (avoids rate limits)

Examples

Install a specific version:

sh 
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/grafana/gcx/main/scripts/install.sh | VERSION=0.2.4 sh

Install to /usr/local/bin:

sh 
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/grafana/gcx/main/scripts/install.sh | INSTALL_DIR=/usr/local/bin sh

Uninstall

To remove gcx, delete the binary:

sh 
rm ~/.local/bin/gcx

Install gcx with Homebrew (macOS and Linux)

To install gcx with Homebrew run:

shell 
brew install grafana/grafana/gcx

To upgrade an existing installation:

shell 
brew upgrade grafana/grafana/gcx

Homebrew builds gcx from source on your machine, as it pulls go as a build dependency. The first install usually takes 30 to 60 seconds, and later upgrades reuse the Homebrew download cache.

This option avoids macOS Gatekeeper because it doesn’t download a prebuilt binary. You won’t need to work around notarisation.

Install a prebuilt binary

Prebuilt binaries are available for a variety of systems and architectures. Refer to the release versions on GitHub for more details.

To install a prebuilt binary:

  1. Download the archive for the operating system and architecture you need.
  2. Extract the archive.
  3. Move the executable to the directory where you want to keep it.
  4. Make sure that directory is in your PATH.
  5. Make sure the file has execute permission.

If you use macOS, a manually downloaded binary might be blocked by Gatekeeper. For more information, refer to macOS Gatekeeper and killed: 9.

Install gcx from source

To install gcx with Go, you need:

To install, run:

shell 
go install github.com/grafana/gcx/cmd/gcx@latest

macOS Gatekeeper and killed 9

macOS quarantines any downloaded binary by default. Since gcx release binaries are not yet Apple-notarised, macOS may block it the first time you run it. If this happens, you’ll see one of these two symptoms:

  • Intel macOS: A dialog says, “Apple could not verify ‘gcx’ is free of malware…”, and the binary doesn’t run.
  • Apple Silicon (M-series) macOS: The binary exits immediately with killed: 9 and no visible dialog.

Homebrew users are not affected. Since it compiles gcx from source on your machine, no pre-built binary is downloaded and no xattr is set.

Bypass the macOS gatekeeper

In manual downloads, bypass this by clearing the xattr and ad-hoc sign the binary so Apple Silicon accepts it:

sh 
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine "$(command -v gcx)" 2>/dev/null || true
codesign --sign - --force "$(command -v gcx)"   # required on Apple Silicon

Next, run gcx --version again; subsequent invocations should succeed without the block.

Note that these steps will no longer be necessary once gcx release binaries are Apple-notarised.