Installation¶

The Linux builds bundle SDL3 and the fonts, so they run on most distributions with no extra packages. Pick whichever option suits your system. All downloads live on the releases page.

Quick install (one line)¶

The fastest way on Linux. This downloads the latest release for your architecture and installs it into ~/.local (no root), adding a mdpad command and a menu entry:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/celray/mdpad/master/install.sh | sh

Prefer to read a script before piping it to a shell? Download it first:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/celray/mdpad/master/install.sh -o install-mdpad.sh
less install-mdpad.sh
sh install-mdpad.sh

Re-run it any time to update to the newest release. A couple of environment variables change where and what it installs:

# install somewhere other than ~/.local
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/celray/mdpad/master/install.sh | MDPAD_PREFIX="$HOME/apps/mdpad" sh

# pin a specific release instead of the latest
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/celray/mdpad/master/install.sh | MDPAD_VERSION=1.0 sh

Make sure ~/.local/bin is on your PATH, then run mdpad file.md. To remove a ~/.local install later, delete ~/.local/lib/mdpad and ~/.local/bin/mdpad.

The sections below cover the manual options: the .deb package and the portable tarball.

Updating¶

mdpad can update itself to the latest release:

mdpad --update         # download and install the newest release
mdpad --check-update   # just report whether a newer release exists
mdpad --version        # show the installed version

mdpad --update reuses the one-line installer, so it updates a ~/.local install in place (no root). mdpad also checks for new releases in the background once a day and, when one is available, notes it in the window title.

Downloads¶

Platform	x86_64 / amd64	ARM64 / aarch64
Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)	`mdpad_1.1.1_amd64.deb`	`mdpad_1.1.1_arm64.deb`
Linux (portable)	`mdpad-1.1.1-linux-x86_64.tar.gz`	`mdpad-1.1.1-linux-aarch64.tar.gz`
Windows / macOS	build from source	build from source

Debian / Ubuntu (.deb)¶

sudo apt install ./mdpad_1.1.1_amd64.deb

This installs the application to /opt/mdpad with a mdpad command on your PATH and a desktop entry, so it also shows up in your application menu. To remove it:

sudo apt remove mdpad

Portable tarball (any distribution)¶

tar xzf mdpad-1.1.1-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
cd mdpad-1.1.1-linux-x86_64
./mdpad

Everything mdpad needs (the SDL libraries and the fonts) sits in that folder. Keep the files together; the binary loads them from its own directory.

Optional: install for your user, no root¶

The tarball includes an install.sh that copies mdpad into ~/.local and adds a menu entry, without touching system directories:

./install.sh

Make sure ~/.local/bin is on your PATH, then run mdpad from anywhere.

ARM64 Linux¶

ARM64 (aarch64) packages ship with every release, so all the options above work the same way. The one-line installer detects your architecture automatically. For the manual options, use the ARM64 files: install sudo apt install ./mdpad_1.1.1_arm64.deb, or unpack mdpad-1.1.1-linux-aarch64.tar.gz and run ./mdpad.

Windows and macOS¶

There are no prebuilt binaries yet. The project builds on both from source with CMake. See Building from source.