Install

bytheway supports two install methods: a pre-built binary served from this docs site (no Go toolchain required), and go install from source.

Pre-built binary

curl -fsSL https://jvcorredor.github.io/bytheway/install.sh | sh

The script downloads the platform-appropriate tarball and checksums.txt from the matching GitHub Release, verifies the SHA256 of the tarball against the manifest, and extracts the btw binary into the install directory. It does not edit any shell rc files.

Environment-variable overrides

Variable	Default	Notes
INSTALL_DIR	$HOME/.local/bin	Destination directory. Use /usr/local/bin for a system-wide install.
VERSION	latest GitHub release	Pin to a specific release tag, e.g. VERSION=0.2.0 (leading v optional).

INSTALL_DIR=/usr/local/bin curl -fsSL https://jvcorredor.github.io/bytheway/install.sh | sudo sh
VERSION=0.2.0 curl -fsSL https://jvcorredor.github.io/bytheway/install.sh | sh

Supported platforms

linux/amd64, linux/arm64, darwin/amd64, darwin/arm64. Other platforms abort with a clear error; build from source instead.

$PATH setup

If the install directory is not on your $PATH, the script prints a one-line snippet you can paste into your shell config — export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH" for bash/zsh/sh, fish_add_path $HOME/.local/bin for fish. The script never edits rc files itself.

Checksum verification

The script downloads checksums.txt from the same release and compares the SHA256 of the tarball against the entry for the platform-specific filename. A mismatch aborts with a non-zero exit and a clear error; nothing is installed in that case.

Re-running the script

If a btw binary already lives at the destination, the script reads its version with btw version and prints Upgrading bytheway from X to Y when the resolved version differs.

macOS quarantine note

Tarballs downloaded through a browser get the com.apple.quarantine extended attribute, which makes Gatekeeper block the binary on first run. The install script downloads via curl and is unaffected. If you fetched the tarball manually instead, clear the attribute once before running:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine ./bytheway

From source (go install)

go install github.com/jvcorredor/bytheway@latest

Requires a Go toolchain. The binary lands in $GOBIN (or $GOPATH/bin) as bytheway — go install derives the executable name from the last element of the module path and offers no flag to override it. Pin a specific version with @v0.2.0. Module-mode go install does the same SHA verification as any other Go module download.

If you want to invoke it as btw, add a shell alias:

# bash / zsh — in ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
alias btw=bytheway

# fish — persists as ~/.config/fish/functions/btw.fish
alias --save btw=bytheway

For a real btw executable on disk (no alias indirection), use the pre-built binary install method instead — the release tarball ships the binary as btw.