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🐟 apt install fish

The friendly interactive shell, with autosuggestions and syntax highlighting out of the box

⚡ The short answer. On a stock system apt install fish works, but installs a frozen version (Debian ships 4.0.2, Ubuntu ships 4.2.1) rather than the current 4.8.1. Add the deb.griffo.io repository below and sudo apt install fish gives you the current release on Debian and Ubuntu alike — currently fish 4.8.1 (updated 2026-08-17).

📦 Add the repository, then apt install fish

Step 1: Add repository & key

Run the commands
sudo install -d -m 0755 /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://deb.griffo.io/EA0F721D231FDD3A0A17B9AC7808B4DD62C41256.asc | sudo gpg --dearmor --yes -o /etc/apt/keyrings/deb.griffo.io.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/deb.griffo.io.gpg] https://deb.griffo.io/apt $(lsb_release -sc) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/deb.griffo.io.list > /dev/null
sudo apt update
install -d -m 0755 /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://deb.griffo.io/EA0F721D231FDD3A0A17B9AC7808B4DD62C41256.asc | gpg --dearmor --yes -o /etc/apt/keyrings/deb.griffo.io.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/deb.griffo.io.gpg] https://deb.griffo.io/apt $(lsb_release -sc) main" | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/deb.griffo.io.list > /dev/null
apt update

Step 2: apt install fish

sudo apt install -y fish
apt install -y fish

🔄 How to apt install the latest fish

Once the repository is added there is no separate "install latest" command — apt already resolves to the newest version this repository serves, and that is rebuilt within hours of every upstream fish release. To move an existing install up to the latest version:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install --only-upgrade fish
apt update && apt install --only-upgrade fish

Or upgrade everything on the machine at once with sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade. To see which version you would get before installing, run apt policy fish.

📋 fish versions available right now

Debian

Debian releaseSuitefish version
Debian 12 “Bookworm”bookworm4.8.1-1~bookworm
Debian 13 “Trixie”trixie4.8.1-1~trixie
Debian 14 “Forky”forky4.8.1-1~forky
Debian Sidsid4.8.1-1~sid

Ubuntu

Ubuntu releaseSuitefish version
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS “Jammy Jellyfish”jammy4.8.1-1~jammy
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS “Noble Numbat”noble4.8.1-1~noble
Ubuntu 25.10 “Questing Quokka”questing4.8.1-1~questing
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS “Resolute”resolute4.8.1-1~resolute

❓ Common questions

Does apt-get install fish work too?

Yes. apt and apt-get read the same sources, so sudo apt-get install fish is equivalent. apt is the friendlier front-end; apt-get is the stable one to prefer inside scripts.

Why doesn't apt install fish work out of the box?

It does work, but not with the version most people want: Debian ships 4.0.2, Ubuntu ships 4.2.1, because Debian and Ubuntu freeze package versions when a release ships and afterwards take mostly security fixes. This repository tracks upstream fish releases instead, rebuilding within hours of each one.

Which Debian and Ubuntu releases are supported?

Every currently supported release listed in the table above. The $(lsb_release -sc) in the setup command picks the right suite for the machine you run it on, so the same three lines work everywhere.

Is this repository trustworthy?

It's an unofficial repository maintained by Dario Griffo. Packages are built automatically from official upstream fish releases, the packaging is open source at dariogriffo/fish-shell-debian, and the whole archive is GPG-signed. Several upstream projects link to it from their official installation docs.

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