d2/docs/INSTALL.md

install

You may install d2 through any of the following methods.

• install.sh
  • Security
• macOS (Homebrew)
• Linux
  • Void Linux
• Standalone
  • Manual
  • PREFIX
• From source
  • Source Release
• Windows
  • Release archives
  • WSL
• Docker
• Coming soon

install.sh

The recommended and easiest way to install is with our install script, which will detect the OS and architecture you're on and use the best method:

# With --dry-run the install script will print the commands it will use
# to install without actually installing so you know what it's going to do.
curl -fsSL https://d2lang.com/install.sh | sh -s -- --dry-run
# If things look good, install for real.
curl -fsSL https://d2lang.com/install.sh | sh -s --

For help on the terminal run, including the supported package managers and detection methods:

curl -fsSL https://d2lang.com/install.sh | sh -s -- --help

Security

The install script is not the most secure way to install d2. We recommend that if possible, you use your OS's package manager directly or install from source with go as described below.

But this does not mean the install script is insecure. There is no major flaw that the install script is more vulnerable to than any other method of manual installation. The most secure installation method involves a second independent entity, i.e your OS package repos or Go's proxy server.

We're careful shell programmers and are aware of the many footguns of the Unix shell. Our script was written carefully and with detail. For example, it is not vulnerable to partial execution and the entire script runs with set -eu and very meticulous quoting.

It follows the XDG standards, installs d2 properly into a Unix hierarchy path (/usr/local unless /usr/local requires sudo in which case ~/.local is used) and allows for easy uninstall. You can easily adjust the used path with --prefix.

Some other niceties are that it'll tell you if you need to adjust $PATH or $MANPATH to access d2 and its manpages. It can also install TALA for you with --tala. You can also use it to install a specific version of d2 with --version. Run it with --help for more more detailed docs on its various options and features.

If you're still concerned, remember you can run with --dry-run to avoid writing anything.

The install script does not yet verify any signature on the downloaded release but that is coming soon. #315

macOS (Homebrew)

If you're on macOS, you can install with brew.

brew install d2

The install script above does this automatically if you have brew installed and are running it on macOS.

You can also install from source with:

brew install d2 --HEAD

Linux

The following distributions have packages for d2:

Void Linux

All supported platforms:

xbps-install d2

Standalone

We publish standalone release archives for every release on Github.

Here's a minimal example script that downloads a standalone release, extracts it into the current directory and then installs it. Adjust VERSION, OS, and ARCH as needed.

VERSION=v0.0.13 OS=macos ARCH=amd64 curl -fsSLO \
    "https://github.com/terrastruct/d2/releases/download/$VERSION/d2-$VERSION-$OS-$ARCH.tar.gz" \
    && tar -xzf "d2-$VERSION-$OS-$ARCH.tar.gz" \
    && make -sC "d2-$VERSION" install

To uninstall:

VERSION=v0.0.13 make -sC "d2-$VERSION" uninstall

Manual

You can also manually download the .tar.gz release for your OS/ARCH combination and then run the following inside the extracted directory to install:

make install

Run the following to uninstall:

make uninstall

PREFIX

You can control the Unix hierarchy installation path with PREFIX=. For example:

# Install under ~/.local.
# Binaries will be at ~/.local/bin
# And manpages will be under ~/.local/share/man
# And supporting data like icons and fonts at ~/.local/share/d2
make install PREFIX=$HOME/.local

The install script places the standalone release into $PREFIX/lib/d2/d2-<version> and we recommend doing the same with manually installed releases so that you know where the release directory is for easy uninstall.

From source

You can always install from source:

go install oss.terrastruct.com/d2@latest

You need at least Go v1.20

Source Release

To install a release from source clone the repository and then:

./ci/release/build.sh --install
# To uninstall:
# ./ci/release/build.sh --uninstall

Installing a real release will also install manpages and in the future other assets like fonts and icons. Furthermore, when installing a non versioned commit, installing a release will ensure that d2 --version works correctly by embedding the commit hash into the d2 binary.

Remember, you need at least Go v1.20

Windows

We have prebuilt releases of d2 available for Windows via .msi installers. The installer will add the d2 binary to your $PATH so that you can execute d2 in cmd.exe or pwsh.exe.

Release archives

We also have release archives for Windows structured in the same way as our Unix releases for use with MSYS2.

See MSYS2 or Git Bash (Git Bash is based on MSYS2).

MSYS2 provides a unix style shell environment that is native to Windows (unlike Cygwin). MSYS2 allows install.sh to work, enables automatic installation of our standalone releases via make install and makes the manpage accessible via man d2.

The MSYS2 terminal also enables d2 to display colors like in the above screenshot.

In addition, all of our development and CI scripts work under MSYS2 whereas they do not under plain Windows.

WSL

d2 works perfectly under WSL aka Windows Subsystem for Linux if that's what you prefer. Installation is just like any other Linux system.

Docker

https://hub.docker.com/repository/docker/terrastruct/d2

We publish amd64 and arm64 images based on debian:latest for each release.

Example usage:

echo 'x -> y' >helloworld.d2
docker run --rm -it -u "$(id -u):$(id -g)" -v "$PWD:/home/debian/src" \
  -p 127.0.0.1:8080:8080 terrastruct/d2:v0.1.2 --watch helloworld.d2
# Visit http://127.0.0.1:8080

Coming soon

• rpm and deb packages
  • with repositories and standalone
• homebrew core