git-annex/ install/ OSX

## git-annex.app

For easy installation, use the prebuilt app bundle.

- 10.15 Catalina: git-annex.dmg

To run the git-annex assistant, just install the app, look for the icon, and start it up.

To use git-annex at the command line, you can add `git-annex.app/Contents/MacOS` to your `PATH`

Alternatively, from the command line you can run `git-annex.app/Contents/MacOS/runshell`, which makes your shell use all the programs bundled inside the app, including not just git-annex, but git, and several more. Handy if you don't otherwise have git installed.

## autobuilds

An autobuild is also available, thanks to the Datalad project.

- git-annex.dmg (build logs)

## download security

All the download links above use https for security. For added security, see verifying downloads.

## using Homebrew

git-annex is available in Homebrew.

## using MacPorts

git-annex is not available in MacPorts, but can be built from source using MacPorts tools. See MacPorts.

## building it yourself

See porting.

Why different versions?
Why are there different versions for 10.7, 10.8, 10.9 anyway? Is it not possible to produce an executable compatible with all these? I mean, it's the same architecture and executable format, not? I guess there has to be a reason, explanations are welcome :-)
Comment by https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawn3p4i4lk_zMilvjnJ9sS6g2nerpgz0Fjc — Wed Oct 29 14:05:27 2025
comment 8

@David, the bundle contains the man page since a while.

@Michael, the best way to get a git-annex that does not use those bundled programs is probably to instead install it using homebrew.

Comment by http://joeyh.name/ — Wed Oct 29 14:05:27 2025
comment 7
If you can get it to build using the instructions for Brew (or MacPorts) on this page, it's easy to get from there to a distributable app.
Comment by http://joeyh.name/ — Wed Oct 29 14:05:27 2025
Snow Leopard
If the process is very automatic I might contribute. I mean, if you tell me, install this and that package and run this script once a week, I might be able to help. I have a MacBook from 2007 with Snow Leopard. I also have macports installed, but I'm not a programmer.
Comment by https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawnaYy6kTuKAHmsa4BtGls2oqa42Jo2w2v0 — Wed Oct 29 14:05:27 2025
comment 5
What we need to provide a Snow Leopard or other version build, is access to a box running that version of OSX, or someone with a box that doesn't mind compiling stuff and setting up the autobuilder (not very hard).
Comment by http://joeyh.name/ — Wed Oct 29 14:05:27 2025
Snow Leopard

Hi,

Are there plans to provide a git-annex.app that works on Snow Leopard?

Currently there are only installers for the Lions.

http://downloads.kitenet.net/git-annex/OSX/current/

Thanks :-)

Comment by https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawnaYy6kTuKAHmsa4BtGls2oqa42Jo2w2v0 — Wed Oct 29 14:05:27 2025
confusion with bundled programs

I have fiddled with the fresh (as of Oct 2nd) build of assistant on OS X 10.8.5, and there has been a lot of problems with bundled software

bundled git is an old 1.7.x version which keeps saying in the daemon logs it is too old to honor .gitignores etc at the same time I have git 1.8.4 installed through homebrew which works very nicely throughout my system

I also have homebrew-installed gpg2:

$ gpg2 --version gpg (GnuPG) 2.0.21 libgcrypt 1.5.3

(and have briefly experimented with using GPGSuite from gpgtools.org, which kept bailing with invalid autolocate directive in gpg.conf)

however there is some unidentifiable gpg binary bundled with the assistant, which cannot connect to gpg-agent from gpg2, and doesn't work with GPGSuite (see above)

is there a way to completely forgo usage of bundled software and have the webapp use whatever is already available on the system?

Comment by https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawnyMzZZLS1xGW1raqc_9Md6Ksdkvx5rUJU — Wed Oct 29 14:05:27 2025
comment 23

@Dan I would not be surprised if cabal v2-install does not support installing man pages like the old v1-install does. When I tried it, it seemed not to.

The Makefile has an `install-mans` target that could be used instead. There are several other things that `make install` does that cabal cannot, including installing completions files, so system integrators (like homebrew) should probably use it when they can.

Comment by joey — Wed Oct 29 14:05:27 2025
comment 23

Guys talking about uname -o and stuff, this is not the place to do that. File a bug report if you have a bug like that. You're making it harder for every person who opens this page to install git-annex and ends up wwading through discussion of fixed bugs like that one. Also, I respond much faster to bug reports than to random misplaced comments about bugs.

Comment by joey — Wed Oct 29 14:05:27 2025
Apologies
My apologies. I will do that in future. I've removed my comments.Hopefully that doesn't cause more confusion. It's working great now. Thanks for the amazing software!
Comment by allforabit — Wed Oct 29 14:05:27 2025
comment 21
I don't get this, but I should note uname on macOS doesn't have -o, this should probably be changed to -s
Comment by lhunath — Wed Oct 29 14:05:27 2025
OSX app bundle
I'm using the annex assistant from the annex bundle for the convenience, but sometimes I use git-annex directly from the command line. I have /Applications/git-annex.app/Contents/MacOS/ in my path, but is there any way you could build the app bundle with the manpage in there so I could add it to my MANPATH?
Comment by https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawnEgT3Gxm4AAK4zu3ft5-PsUmY6dr1F-gE — Wed Oct 29 14:05:27 2025
comment 2

I've moved some outdated comments about installing on OSX to old comments. And also moved away some comments that helped build the instructions above.

Comment by http://joeyh.name/ — Wed Oct 29 14:05:27 2025
git-annex not a cask anymore
@andrew.grangaard, I just wanted to note that git-annex is no longer available as a cask. It is just available as a formula, ie `brew install git-annex` see Homebrew.
Comment by andrew — Wed Oct 29 14:05:27 2025
comment 18
Right. Should have searched the bug reports. Thanks and sorry for the noise.
Comment by achilleas.k — Wed Oct 29 14:05:27 2025
re: dmg (possibly) requires rebuild

@achilleas.k, that was this bug which should be fixed now.

Please file bug reports for issues with the OSX build, don't report them here.

Comment by joey — Wed Oct 29 14:05:27 2025
dmg (possibly) requires rebuild

On macOS High Sierra (10.13.3) trying to use git-annex from the latest .dmg shows the following error:

    > git annex version
    dyld: Symbol not found: _inflateValidate
      Referenced from: /System/Library/Frameworks/ImageIO.framework/Versions/A/Resources/libPng.dylib
      Expected in: /Applications/git-annex.app/Contents/MacOS/bundle/B
     in /System/Library/Frameworks/ImageIO.framework/Versions/A/Resources/libPng.dylib
    error: git-annex died of signal 6

I ran it by opening the .app directory (Show Package Contents) and running the `runshell` script to set up the environment:

    > which git
    /Applications/git-annex.app/Contents/MacOS/bundle/git
    > which git-annex
    /Applications/git-annex.app/Contents/MacOS/bundle/git-annex

Comment by achilleas.k — Wed Oct 29 14:05:27 2025
It is better to provide osx dmgs
I've just installed git-annex in OSX High Sierra, and it pulls a LOT of dependencies, many of them already installed. For instance, yet another python distro. It is kind of overkill just to install annex.
Comment by drunken_sapo — Wed Oct 29 14:05:27 2025
comment 14

I don't know what needs to be put where in the app to make `open` run git-annex-webapp. There is already a Info.plist file that I thought was supposed to handle that. If someone wants to help make `open` work please be my guest.

Comment by joey — Wed Oct 29 14:05:27 2025
The application cannot be opened because its executable is missing.

Just downloaded the DMG, copied the .app into /Applications and ran it; does nothing, from terminal:

$ open -W /Applications/git-annex.app The application cannot be opened because its executable is missing.

$ /Applications/git-annex.app/Contents/MacOS/git-annex-webapp $ unable to start webapp in repository /Users/lhunath/annex: Not in a git repository. Launching web browser on file:///var/folders/np/v9byg9092bbf31jw5cydzszm0000gn/T/webapp1622650073984943658.html

$ /Applications/git-annex.app/Contents/MacOS/git-annex version git-annex version: 6.20160427-gd0036b9 build flags: Assistant Webapp Pairing Testsuite S3(multipartupload)(storageclasses) WebDAV FsEvents XMPP ConcurrentOutput TorrentParser MagicMime Feeds Quvi key/value backends: SHA256E SHA256 SHA512E SHA512 SHA224E SHA224 SHA384E SHA384 SHA3_256E SHA3_256 SHA3_512E SHA3_512 SHA3_224E SHA3_224 SHA3_384E SHA3_384 SKEIN256E SKEIN256 SKEIN512E SKEIN512 SHA1E SHA1 MD5E MD5 WORM URL remote types: git gcrypt S3 bup directory rsync web bittorrent webdav tahoe glacier ddar hook external

Comment by lhunath — Wed Oct 29 14:05:27 2025
10.10 build works on El Capitan (10.11)

The OSX 10.10 build works fine on my 10.11 El Capitan machine. Updated this page to reflect that.

git-annex is also in 'brew cask', automating installation from the OSX binaries. I've sent PR 18105 to the brew cask team to get the cask to work for 10.11.

Comment by andrew.grangaard — Wed Oct 29 14:05:27 2025
Re: Is the Mavericks build still beeing updated?

The Yosemite build linked above has been reported to work on Mavericks too, and is being updated. There is no separate Mavericks build anymore.

There were some old mavericks builds floating around the downloads site; I've removed those and symlinked the mavericks directory to the yosimite directory.

Comment by joey — Wed Oct 29 14:05:27 2025
Is the Mavericks build still beeing updated?
I am still using Mac OS 10.9. Recently downloading a new git-annex version showed that the Mavericks build is still based on 5.20141104, while the Yosemite is 5.20150219. I am wondering if this is a misstake or if it is time for me to move on to Yosemite? ;-)
Comment by https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawk7iPiqWr3BVPLWEDvJhSSvcOqheLEbLNo — Wed Oct 29 14:05:27 2025
Comments on this page are closed.