Install the Chef Habitat CLI

Chef Habitat provides a command-line interface (CLI) tool called hab that you use to build packages, manage services, and interact with Chef Habitat Builder. This section includes installation instructions for Linux, macOS, and Windows.

System requirements

Before you install Chef Habitat, confirm that your system meets these requirements.

Operating system and architecture requirements

• Modern Linux kernels on a 64-bit x86_64 processor (Intel or AMD)
• Modern Linux kernels on a 64-bit ARM processor
• Windows Server 2012 or later, or Windows 8 or later on a 64-bit processor
• macOS 14 or later on a 64-bit Apple Silicon or Intel processor

Docker requirements

You need Docker Desktop only if you want to use the Docker-based Chef Habitat Studio, which you invoke with the -D flag.

If you do need Docker Desktop, install it for your platform:

• Docker Desktop for Linux
• Docker Desktop for macOS
• Docker Desktop for Windows

On Linux, you must have Docker Engine installed to export a Chef Habitat artifact to a Docker image.

Chef Habitat doesn’t support alternative containerization platforms.

Install on Linux

Install from the command line

Progress Chef recommends installing Chef Habitat on Linux with the install script.

To install Chef Habitat with the install script:

1. Export your Chef Habitat Builder auth token:

   export HAB_AUTH_TOKEN=<your-token>
   

2. Run the install script:

   curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/habitat-sh/habitat/main/components/hab/install.sh | sudo -E bash
   

   To install a specific Chef Habitat version, use the -v <HABITAT_VERSION> flag, for example:

   curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/habitat-sh/habitat/main/components/hab/install.sh \
       | sudo -E bash -s -- -v 2.0.504
   

Install manually

1. Download Chef Habitat for Linux

2. Extract the hab.tgz binary to /usr/local/bin or add its location to your PATH, for example:

   tar -xvzf hab.tgz -C /usr/local/bin --strip-components 1
   

Install on macOS

The following list summarizes what’s supported when running Chef Habitat on macOS:

Install from the command line

Progress Chef recommends installing Chef Habitat on macOS with the install script.

To install Chef Habitat with the install script, follow these steps:

1. Export your Chef Habitat Builder auth token:

   export HAB_AUTH_TOKEN=<your-token>
   

2. Run the install script:

   curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/habitat-sh/habitat/main/components/hab/install.sh | sudo -E bash
   

   To install a specific Chef Habitat version, use the -v <HABITAT_VERSION> flag, for example:

   curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/habitat-sh/habitat/main/components/hab/install.sh \
       | sudo -E bash -s -- -v 2.0.504
   

Install with Homebrew

To install Chef Habitat with Homebrew, run the following commands:

brew tap habitat-sh/habitat
brew install hab

Install manually

1. Download Chef Habitat for macOS

2. Unzip the Chef Habitat binary to /usr/local/bin to add it to your system PATH.

3. Remove the quarantine attribute that macOS sets on files downloaded through a browser:

   xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /usr/local/bin/hab
   

Additional setup to build Chef Habitat packages

If you plan to build Chef Habitat packages in Habitat Studio on macOS, you must also install or configure the following dependencies.

Virtual machine environment

The macOS-native Chef Habitat Studio uses sandbox-exec for isolation but shares the /opt/hab filesystem with your host. Packages installed during a build persist on the host, and builds aren’t guaranteed to be clean between sessions in the same way as Linux chroot-based studios. To avoid affecting your host Chef Habitat environment, run the macOS native studio inside a virtual machine (for example, UTM or Parallels on Apple Silicon).

Install Xcode Command Line Tools

Chef Habitat Studio on macOS uses the Clang compiler and linker toolkit provided by the Xcode Command Line Tools.

• To install the Xcode Command Line Tools, run the following command:

  xcode-select --install
  

Install on Windows

Install with Chocolatey

Progress Chef recommends installing Chef Habitat on Windows with Chocolatey.

To install Chef Habitat with Chocolatey, run the following command:

choco install habitat

Install from the command line

You can install Chef Habitat by downloading and running the installation script:

Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force
iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/habitat-sh/habitat/main/components/hab/install.ps1'))

You can install a specific Chef Habitat version with -Version <HABITAT_VERSION>, for example:

iex "& { $(irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/habitat-sh/habitat/main/components/hab/install.ps1) } -Version 2.0.504

Install manually

1. Download Chef Habitat for Windows

2. Unzip the Chef Habitat binary on your computer to C:\habitat so that the full path to Chef Habitat looks like C:\habitat\hab-<HABITAT_VERSION>-<YYYYMMDDHHMMSS>-x86_64-windows.

   For example, C:\habitat\hab-0.79.1-20190410221450-x86_64-windows.

3. Add that directory to your PATH variable:

   $env:PATH += ";C:\habitat\hab-0.79.1-20190410221450-x86_64-windows\"
   

Verify installation

To verify your installation, run the following commands:

hab --version
hab cli setup --help

See also

• install.sh script reference
• troubleshooting

Next steps

• Configure the Chef Habitat CLI