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Installation

Install Ghost Shell from a .deb or .rpm package, a static binary, or source - and see exactly what the package puts on disk.

Requirements

  • Linux. Ghost Shell uses /proc and SO_PEERCRED, so it is Linux-only.
  • Go 1.25 — only if you build from source.

Every vX.Y.Z tag publishes an .rpm, a .deb, and static binaries on the releases page. The commands below always fetch the latest release.

Debian / Ubuntu (.deb)

bash
VER=$(curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/Karannnnn614/Ghost-Shell/releases/latest | grep -oP '"tag_name":\s*"v\K[^"]+')
curl -fLO "https://github.com/Karannnnn614/Ghost-Shell/releases/download/v${VER}/ghostshell_${VER}_amd64.deb"
sudo apt install "./ghostshell_${VER}_amd64.deb"

RHEL / Rocky / AlmaLinux / Fedora (.rpm)

bash
VER=$(curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/Karannnnn614/Ghost-Shell/releases/latest | grep -oP '"tag_name":\s*"v\K[^"]+')
curl -fLO "https://github.com/Karannnnn614/Ghost-Shell/releases/download/v${VER}/ghostshell-${VER}-1.x86_64.rpm"
sudo dnf install "./ghostshell-${VER}-1.x86_64.rpm"

Static binary (any distro)

bash
VER=$(curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/Karannnnn614/Ghost-Shell/releases/latest | grep -oP '"tag_name":\s*"v\K[^"]+')
curl -fL -o ghostshell "https://github.com/Karannnnn614/Ghost-Shell/releases/download/v${VER}/ghostshell-${VER}-linux-amd64"
chmod +x ghostshell && sudo install -m755 ghostshell /usr/bin/ghostshell

What the package installs

  • ghostshell CLI to /usr/bin, the ghostshell-daemon daemon to /usr/libexec
  • A systemd unit, bash completion, and the auto-record login hook
  • Post-install: creates /var/lib/ghostshell (root-only) and /var/log/ghostshell, writes /etc/ghostshell/ghostshell.conf with all defaults visible, and enables ghostshell-daemon

Note: The sshd ForceCommand wrapper binary is shipped but left inactive. Recording non-interactive SSH is explicitly opt-in — installing the package never silently reconfigures sshd.

From source

bash
git clone https://github.com/Karannnnn614/Ghost-Shell.git
cd Ghost-Shell
make build          # builds bin/ghostshell and bin/ghostshell-daemon
sudo make install   # installs binaries, man page, systemd unit, completion

Building packages yourself (make rpm / make deb) is covered in contributing.

Next

Record and replay your first session in the quick start, or review the defaults in configuration.

Source of truth: README on GitHub