Install

snapdir ships as a single static binary named snapdir with zero runtime dependencies — all hashing and storage happen in-process, so there is nothing to install alongside it. Pick whichever route fits your environment; both give you the same snapdir command.

Install with cargo

If you have a Rust toolchain (1.91.1 or newer), install snapdir from crates.io:

cargo install snapdir

This compiles and places snapdir in ~/.cargo/bin. Make sure that directory is on your PATH (the Rust installer normally adds it for you).

To upgrade later, re-run the same command with --force:

cargo install snapdir --force

Install a prebuilt release archive

Every tagged release publishes prebuilt, per-platform archives on GitHub — no Rust toolchain required. Grab the archive for your platform from the releases page:

https://github.com/snapdir/snapdir/releases

Archives are named snapdir-<version>-<target>.tar.xz and each ships with a matching .sha256 checksum file. Prebuilt targets:

Platform	Target triple
Linux x86_64 (glibc)	`x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu`
Linux x86_64 (static musl)	`x86_64-unknown-linux-musl`
Linux aarch64 (glibc)	`aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu`
Linux aarch64 (static musl)	`aarch64-unknown-linux-musl`
macOS x86_64 (Intel)	`x86_64-apple-darwin`
macOS aarch64 (Apple Silicon)	`aarch64-apple-darwin`

The *-musl builds are fully static and link hermetically — handy for containers and minimal or restricted environments.

Download, verify the checksum, unpack, and put the binary on your PATH. For example, on Linux x86_64 with the static musl build:

version=1.9.0
target=x86_64-unknown-linux-musl
base="https://github.com/snapdir/snapdir/releases/download/v${version}"

# Download the archive and its checksum
curl -LO "${base}/snapdir-${version}-${target}.tar.xz"
curl -LO "${base}/snapdir-${version}-${target}.tar.xz.sha256"

# Verify integrity (exits non-zero on mismatch)
shasum -a 256 -c "snapdir-${version}-${target}.tar.xz.sha256"

# Unpack and install
tar -xJf "snapdir-${version}-${target}.tar.xz"
sudo install "snapdir-${version}-${target}/snapdir" /usr/local/bin/snapdir

Each archive also bundles the snapdir-ssh-store and snapdir-sftp-store binaries, the LICENSE, CHANGELOG.md, shell completions (completions/), and a man page (man/snapdir.1).

Optional: SSH and SFTP store binaries

To use the ssh:// and sftp:// stores, the snapdir-ssh-store and snapdir-sftp-store binaries must also be on your PATH. The prebuilt release archives already include both; with cargo, install them from their own crate:

cargo install snapdir-ssh-store

They drive your system OpenSSH client (version 8.5 or newer required), so there is nothing else to configure — your existing ~/.ssh/config, keys, and agent keep working. If you only use the file:// and cloud stores, you can skip them.

Use snapdir as a library

snapdir is also available as a Rust crate if you want to embed snapshotting in your own program:

cargo add snapdir-core

Verify the install

Confirm the binary is on your PATH and prints its version:

snapdir version

You should see version 1.9.0. You can also run snapdir --help to list every subcommand.

To generate shell completions from an installed binary, use snapdir autocomplete:

eval "$(snapdir autocomplete zsh)"

Next steps

Head to the Quickstart for a 60-second, no-setup round-trip: snapshot a directory, push it to a local store, and pull it back byte-for-byte verified.