Installing ZVM

By default, ZVM stores Zig installations and settings in $HOME/.zvm, with the global Zig selection linked at $HOME/.zvm/bin. The installer puts ZVM itself in $HOME/.zvm/self, sets ZVM_INSTALL to that directory, and adds both directories to your PATH.

For a separate Zig selection in each terminal and automatic project switching, set up per-shell versions after installation.

If you don’t want to use ZVM_INSTALL (like you already have ZVM in a place you like), then ZVM will update the exact executable you’ve called upgrade from.

Installation scripts hosted on www.zvm.app are copied from GitHub’s master branch when this website is built.

www.zvm.app/install.sh === ./install.sh

Linux, BSD, macOS, *nix

curl https://www.zvm.app/install.sh | bash

Windows

PowerShell

irm https://www.zvm.app/install.ps1 | iex

Command Prompt

powershell -c "irm https://www.zvm.app/install.ps1 | iex"

Go

go install -ldflags "-s -w" github.com/tristanisham/zvm@latest

Manually

Please grab the latest release.

Verify a release archive

The release workflow publishes SHA256SUMS and build provenance attestations. Download the archive for your platform and SHA256SUMS from the same release. From that directory, verify the archive with the GitHub CLI or check its checksum:

gh attestation verify zvm-linux-amd64.tar --repo tristanisham/zvm
sha256sum --check --ignore-missing SHA256SUMS

Use your downloaded archive’s filename in the attestation command. Attestation verification checks that it came from this repository’s build workflow; the checksum command checks that it matches the release’s checksum file. The installer scripts and zvm upgrade do not verify these release attestations.

Build from source

Alternatively, you can build the app by cloning the repository and running

go build .
./zvm

If you want to compile ZVM without zvm upgrade, such as when packaging ZVM for a system package manager, build it with the noAutoUpgrades tag:

go build -tags noAutoUpgrades \
  -ldflags "-s -w -X 'main.BuildUpgradeMessage=Use your package manager to upgrade ZVM.'" .

Putting ZVM on your Path

ZVM requires a few directories to be on your $PATH.

Linux, BSD, macOS, *nix

The installer script handles this for you automatically. If you need to set it up manually, append the following to your shell’s startup file (~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, or ~/.profile):

export ZVM_INSTALL="$HOME/.zvm/self"
export PATH="$HOME/.zvm/bin:$ZVM_INSTALL:$PATH"

Then restart your shell or source the file for the changes to take effect.

Windows

If you don’t know how to update your environment variables permanently on Windows, you can follow this guide. Once you’re in the appropriate menu, add or append to the following environment variables:

Add

• ZVM_INSTALL: %USERPROFILE%\.zvm\self

Append

• PATH: %USERPROFILE%\.zvm\bin
• PATH: %ZVM_INSTALL%

Configure ZVM path

Set ZVM_PATH to replace the default ~/.zvm data directory. For an XDG-style location, add this before your shell integration:

export ZVM_PATH="${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}/zvm"
export PATH="$ZVM_PATH/bin:$PATH"

This changes where Zig versions, settings, aliases, and the deduplication store live. Keep the directory containing the ZVM executable on PATH too.

Community Packages

AUR

ZVM on the Arch AUR is a community-maintained package, and may be out of date.