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The official Sifr installer is a shell script that downloads a prebuilt binary for your platform, verifies its SHA-256 checksum, installs the sifr executable to ~/.sifr/bin/sifr, and updates your shell profile so new shells can find it. No package manager or build toolchain is required to get started.

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Supported platforms

Sifr stable provides prebuilt binaries for the following targets:
  • aarch64-apple-darwin (Apple Silicon Mac, macOS 15.0 or newer)
  • x86_64-apple-darwin (Intel Mac, macOS 15.0 or newer)
  • aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu (Linux ARM64, glibc 2.39 or newer)
  • x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu (Linux x86-64, glibc 2.39 or newer)
Windows standalone installation and package-manager distribution are not part of the current stable release.

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Install Sifr

1

Run the installer

Paste the command below into your terminal. The installer detects your platform automatically and fetches the correct binary.
Stable is the recommended channel. Both commands resolve the active stable version from Sifr’s governed schema-v2 release index, verify the immutable installer digest, and download the matching target artifact.
2

Reload your shell

The installer updates your shell profile (~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, or equivalent), but the change only takes effect in new shell sessions. Reload your profile now so the current session can find sifr:
3

Verify the installation

Confirm that sifr is on your PATH and reports a version:
The current stable release reports sifr 0.1.0. If the command is not found, check that ~/.sifr/bin is in your PATH.

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Install options

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Pin an exact version

If you need a reproducible stable setup, pass --version to the installer:
Only active versions present in the governed release index can be pinned. Withdrawn or unknown versions fail before installer execution.

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Install to a custom directory

Set SIFR_INSTALL_DIR to place the managed binary directory somewhere other than ~/.sifr/bin. The installer writes the binary to SIFR_INSTALL_DIR/sifr and, when the directory ends in /bin, installs the sysroot next to that bin directory. For legacy flat custom directories that do not end in /bin, the same directory is used as the sysroot root.

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Disable PATH modification

If you manage your PATH manually or are scripting the install in a CI pipeline, prevent the installer from touching your shell profile:

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Keeping Sifr up to date

Sifr includes a built-in self-update command for installs created by the official installer script. Self-update uses the same GitHub-hosted channel metadata as the public installer.
Before applying an update, use --dry-run to preview what the command would do without downloading anything:

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Switching channels

By default, sifr self update stays on the channel recorded in your install receipt. Pass --channel to select stable or an explicit preview channel:

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Pinning a version on update

You can update to a specific active stable version:

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Reinstalls, downgrades, and channel switches

Same-version reinstalls, downgrades, and channel switches all require --force:
Regular updates to a newer version within your current channel do not need --force.

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Check your install details

sifr self version reports the current executable path, install directory, sysroot path, channel, and receipt status:
sifr self update works only for standalone installs created by the official https://sifr.sh/install script. Source and package-manager installs are not managed by this command.

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Uninstall Sifr

Sifr does not currently include a sifr self uninstall command. To remove a standalone install created by the official installer, delete the installed toolchain root:
Then remove the installer-managed PATH source line from any shell profiles it updated. Look for this line:
Depending on your shell, it may appear in one or more of these files:
  • ~/.profile
  • ~/.bashrc
  • ~/.bash_profile
  • ~/.zshrc
If you use fish, also remove the fish PATH helper:
Restart your shell, then confirm that sifr is no longer on your PATH:
If you installed Sifr to a custom directory with SIFR_INSTALL_DIR, remove that toolchain root. If you installed Sifr from source or through another distribution system, remove it through that same system.

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Troubleshooting

Receipt missing or malformed. If sifr self update reports that the install receipt is missing, predates the self-update rules, or is malformed, rerun the standalone installer to create a fresh receipt:
For a custom install directory, rerun the installer with the same environment variable:
Wrong binary found on PATH. If the diagnostic says the receipt belongs to a different executable, your PATH is resolving a different sifr binary. Run command -v sifr to see which one your shell finds, then either fix your PATH or reinstall the standalone binary so the receipt and executable match. Network failure mid-update. If a metadata or installer download fails, retry after your network recovers. The existing binary and sysroot are not replaced until the delegated installer validates and stages the target artifact, so a failed update leaves your working toolchain intact. See stable releases for withdrawal and rollback behavior, or stable troubleshooting for recovery steps.