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🎛️ Install Latest GitUI on Ubuntu

A blazing fast terminal UI for git, keyboard only

Latest version: 0.28.1 · updated 2026-08-18
SourceVersion
deb.griffo.io0.28.1 ✅
Official Ubuntu🚫 not packaged
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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

🆓 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 →

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 Ubuntu: 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

📦 Package Build Repository

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

🔗 Related Packages

Also available from deb.griffo.io:

🎯 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!

⭐ Star on GitHub 🐦 Share on Twitter

Just after the command? See apt install gitui, one page covering Debian and Ubuntu.

📦 Recent releases from this repository

📚 Release-specific install guides

❓ Frequently asked questions

Is GitUI in the official Ubuntu repositories?

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

How do I install the latest GitUI on Ubuntu?

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 Ubuntu releases are supported?

Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy, 24.04 Noble, 25.10 Questing and 26.04 Resolute.