Managing GitHub installations with gah
Posted on Wed 11 February 2026 in Linux
gah is a tool that simplifies installing programs distributed via GitHub releases. It's a lightweight alternative when you don't want to rely on your distro's package manager or when you need a newer version.
Installation
To install gah, you can use the official script:
bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/get-gah/gah/refs/heads/master/tools/install.sh)"
Usage
Once installed, usage is very straightforward. Here are a couple of examples I've used recently to install popular Rust tools:
To install fd (a fast alternative to find):
gah install sharkdp/fd
To install ripgrep (a fast alternative to grep):
gah install BurntSushi/ripgrep
Gah handles downloading the correct asset for your architecture, unpacking it, and placing it in your path.