Is GitUI in the official Debian repositories?

No, GitUI is not packaged in the official Debian archives. This repository is currently the only apt source, serving GitUI 0.28.1.

How do I install the latest GitUI on Debian?

Add the deb.griffo.io repository once using the instructions above, then run: sudo apt install gitui. New releases arrive through the normal sudo apt upgrade.

Are the packages signed and how are they built?

Every package is signed with the repository's GPG key (EA0F721D231FDD3A0A17B9AC7808B4DD62C41256) and built from upstream releases in public GitHub packaging repositories that anyone can inspect.

Which Debian releases are supported?

Debian 12 Bookworm, Debian 13 Trixie, Forky and Sid.

Install Latest GitUI on Debian via apt

Source	Version
deb.griffo.io	0.28.1 ✅
Official Debian	🚫 not packaged

← Back to home

📌 Installing on a specific release? Debian 12 (bookworm) · Debian 13 (trixie) · Debian 14 (forky) · Debian Sid

What is GitUI?

GitUI is a terminal user interface for git, written in Rust. It gives you the parts of a git GUI that are genuinely worth having, staging individual hunks and lines, reading diffs, browsing and searching the log, stashing, blaming, branching and pushing, without leaving the terminal and without the freezes that popular GUIs hit on large repositories.

            🚀 Why Latest Versions Matter: GitUI is still before 1.0 and moves quickly: submodule support, log search, blame, better rebasing and a long tail of fixes all arrived in ordinary releases, and it tracks its git backend closely. Neither Debian nor Ubuntu packages it at all, so the alternative to a current build is not an older package. It is no package.
        

⚡ Key Features of GitUI

⚡ Fast on Huge Repositories

Upstream's own benchmark parses the whole Linux kernel history in about 24 seconds using around 170 MB of memory, where heavier GUIs freeze or crash.

✂️ Stage Hunks and Lines

Stage, unstage, revert and reset whole files, single hunks or individual lines, the reason most people open a git GUI in the first place.

📜 Log and Diffs

Browse and search the commit log, inspect any commit's diff, and blame a file line by line, all in the same keyboard-driven interface.

📦 Stashing

Save, pop, apply, drop and inspect stashes from a dedicated tab, instead of remembering which git stash subcommand does what.

🌿 Branches and Remotes

Create, rename, delete and check out branches, work with remotes, and push or fetch without dropping back to the shell.

⌨️ Context-Based Help

? lists exactly the keys that work in the current view, and key_bindings.ron lets you rebind everything, vim-style, if that is your habit.

            🚀 Always ahead of the official archives: Debian and Ubuntu freeze package versions when a release ships. This repository publishes new upstream releases typically within hours. A simple apt upgrade keeps you on the latest version.
        

📦 Installation from deb.griffo.io

Run the commands

Step 1: Add Repository

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 2>/dev/null) 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 2>/dev/null) main" | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/deb.griffo.io.list > /dev/null
apt update

sudo apt install extrepo
sudo extrepo enable griffo
sudo apt update

🆓 There is an always-free mirror. deb-free.griffo.io serves packages free forever, no account, no subscription, at most 2 months behind upstream, security fixes immediately. It currently carries cliamp, Ghostty, lazydocker, Oh My Posh and Zed; GitUI is not one of them, so the repository above is the only way to get it today, ask and it can be enrolled.

How the free mirror works →

🧩 About the extrepo option. extrepo is Debian's own tool for external repositories: it writes the sources file and installs the signing key for you, checking the key against signed metadata first. This repository is registered with it as griffo, and the always-free mirror as griffo-free, so on Debian (bookworm, trixie, forky and sid) the commands above are the whole setup.

extrepo sets up the sources file and the key only, so a subscription's credentials still go in /etc/apt/auth.conf.d/deb.griffo.io.conf. Ubuntu is not covered, because extrepo publishes metadata for Debian suites only: there, use the sudo or root commands.

Step 2: Install GitUI

# Install latest GitUI
sudo apt install gitui

# Verify installation
gitui --version

# Install latest GitUI
apt install gitui

# Verify installation
gitui --version

Step 3: First run and configuration

# Open it inside any git repository
cd /path/to/your/repo
gitui

# Press ? at any time for the keys that work in the current view

# Theme and key bindings live in the config directory
ls ~/.config/gitui/

# For example, a vim-style keymap
$EDITOR ~/.config/gitui/key_bindings.ron

🎯 Basic Usage Examples

Opening repositories:

# The repository in the current directory
gitui

# A specific repository, without cd-ing into it
gitui -d ~/src/linux

# A separate work tree and git directory
gitui -d ~/src/project/.git -w ~/src/project

# Start with a file already selected in the files tab
gitui -f src/main.rs

Look and feel:

# A theme file from ~/.config/gitui/
gitui -t mytheme.ron

# A custom keybinding file
gitui -k ~/.config/gitui/key_bindings.ron

# Custom key symbols, for a keyboard that draws them differently
gitui -s ~/.config/gitui/key_symbols.ron

# Use the filesystem watcher instead of tick-based refreshes
gitui --watcher

When something needs debugging:

# Collect environment details for a bug report
gitui --bugreport

# Write a log while reproducing a problem
gitui --logging --logfile /tmp/gitui.log

# The git CLI is still there for what GitUI does not cover
git rebase -i origin/main

# HTTPS pushes need a credential helper configured explicitly
git config --global credential.helper store

🔧 Tool Integrations

GitUI sits on top of your existing git setup:

Your repositories: an ordinary git repository, read and written through a Rust git backend, nothing about it is GitUI-specific
Hooks: pre-commit, commit-msg, post-commit and prepare-commit-msg run just as they do from the command line
GPG signing: signed commits work, with the caveats upstream documents in its issue tracker
Themes and keymaps: theme.ron, key_bindings.ron and key_symbols.ron in ~/.config/gitui/
Over SSH: fast enough on a remote machine that editing a commit on a server stops being a chore; the amd64 build needs no shared libraries

🚀 Why Choose deb.griffo.io?

📊 Repository Comparison:

Official Debian: does not package GitUI at all, apt install gitui fails on a stock system
cargo install gitui: current, but a long Rust compile per machine, outside apt and outside your upgrade path
Upstream tarball: the official binary, which you re-download by hand for every release
deb.griffo.io: latest version with automatic updates

✅ Still Pre-1.0: GitUI gains real features in ordinary releases, so running the current one is the difference between having submodule support, log search and blame or not
✅ The Only apt Source: GitUI is in neither the Debian nor the Ubuntu archives; this repository packages the official upstream build
✅ Automatic Updates: packages updated within hours of upstream releases
✅ Honest Packaging: the upstream binary at /usr/bin/gitui: upstream ships no man page and no shell completions, so the package does not invent any
✅ Three Architectures: amd64 (a static musl build), arm64 and armhf, with the library dependencies declared where upstream links against glibc
✅ Multi-Distribution: works on Bookworm, Trixie, Forky and Sid
✅ Easy Maintenance: standard apt commands for updates

📦 Package Build Repository

The Debian packages are automatically built and maintained in this GitHub repository:

🎛️ gitui-debian - Latest release builds

🔗 Related Packages

Also available from deb.griffo.io:

lazygit - The other terminal git UI, if you prefer its layout
Jujutsu - Git-compatible VCS with first-class rebases
Forgejo - Self-hosted forge to push those branches to
Neovim - Editor for whatever the diff sends you to

            🎯 Perfect for: splitting a messy working tree into clean commits, reviewing what you are about to push, working in repositories big enough to make a graphical client stutter, and every machine you reach over SSH.
        

💝 Support This Project

If this repository saves you time and effort, please consider supporting it!

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🎛️ Install Latest GitUI on Debian