Linux installation using Snap

You can install Nift on linux using the Snap package manager, for instructions see here. Alternatively first install snapd, eg. sudo apt-get install snapd on Ubuntu, then enter:

snap install nift --classic

Snapcraft have a Nift snap available for the following Linux distributions:

To uninstall Nift enter snap remove nift.

Linux installation using Flatpak

Thanks to refi64 for making the installation through Flatpak much easier and cleaner.

Note: We are yet to work out how to get LuaRocks working with the Flatpak installation of Nift, if you need to use rocks from LuaRocks with Nift it is recommended in the meantime that you instead install from Snap or source.

You can install Nift on linux using the Flatpak package manager. First install Flatpak then enter in to a terminal:

flatpak install --user https://flathub.org/repo/appstream/cc.nift.nsm.flatpakref

Alternatively, download cc.nift.nsm.flatpakref to ~/Downloads then open up a terminal and enter:

flatpak install cc.nift.nsm.flatpakref

Note you can just open cc.nift.nsm.flatpakref in GNOME Software or KDE Discover if you have either of those.

Then add the following aliases to ~/.bashrc (or the equivalent to the configuration profile file for your shell):

alias nsm="flatpak run cc.nift.nsm"
alias nift="flatpak run cc.nift.nsm" 

To uninstall Nift remove the aliases from ~/.bashrc and enter flatpak uninstall nift, if that doesn't work try flatpak uninstall cc.nift.nsm and if that fails try:

flatpak uninstall cc.nift.nsm/x86_64/stable

Gentoo installation

There is a Gentoo overlay of Nift available here.

Add the overlay containing Nift Ebuilds:

$ layman -f -o https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NuLL3rr0r/gentoo-overlay/master/repositories.xml -a NuLL3rr0r

For installing the latest stable release of Nift:

$ emerge -atuv www-apps/nift

And, for the development version (note that some shells require quotation of this syntax):

$ emerge -atuv '=www-apps/nift-9999'

In order to set the development version as the default installed version of Nift, and avoid getting it downgraded by Portage on subsequent @world upgrades:

$ mkdir -p /etc/portage/package.accept_keywords/
$ echo '=www-apps/nift-9999 **' > /etc/portage/package.accept_keywords/www-apps_nift
$ emerge -atuv '=www-apps/nift-9999'

To uninstall Nift enter:

$ emerge -C www-apps/nift

Installing Nift on linux from source

Installing a c++ compiler

If you do not already have a c++ compiler then you will need to install one.

Use your package manager to install build-essential. For example on Ubuntu, run sudo apt-get install build-essential from a terminal window. You can find compiler options including building with a normal version of Lua on the documentation page for make.

Installing Nift

1. Extract nsm-master-* from nsm-master-*.zip;
2. Open a terminal window and change directory to nsm-master-*;
3. Compile nsm by running make;
4. Install nsm by running sudo make install (note - you will need to enter your password) (note - you may need to open a new terminal window for nsm installation to be recognised);
5. Delete both the file nsm-master-*.zip and the directory nsm-master-* containing the uncompiled code.

For example, if you unzipped nsm-master-* inside your downloads folder, then steps 1-4 are achieved by entering the following into your terminal window:

cd ~/Downloads/nsm-master-*
make
sudo make install

Note: See here for information about the variables you can pass to the Makefile when compiling Nift.

Uninstalling Nift

Should you ever want to remove Nift from your machine, simply run sudo make uninstall.