You can install the DuckDB CLI client using an install script.

Linux and macOS

To use the DuckDB install script on Linux and macOS, run:

curl https://install.duckdb.org | bash

  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100 13209  100 13209    0     0   126k      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  127k

*** DuckDB Linux/MacOS installation script, version 2.0.0 ***


         .;odxdl,
       .xXXXXXXXXKc
       0XXXXXXXXXXXd  cooo:
      ,XXXXXXXXXXXXK  OXXXXd
       0XXXXXXXXXXXo  cooo:
       .xXXXXXXXXKc
         .;odxdl,


######################################################################## 100.0%

Successfully installed DuckDB 2.0.0 to /Users/your_user/.duckdb/cli/2.0.0/duckdb
Updated symlink from /Users/your_user/.duckdb/cli/latest/duckdb to
                     /Users/your_user/.duckdb/cli/2.0.0/duckdb

Hint: Append the following line to your shell profile:
export PATH="/Users/your_user/.duckdb/cli/latest":$PATH

To launch DuckDB 2.0.0 now, type
/Users/your_user/.duckdb/cli/latest/duckdb

By default, this installs the latest stable version of DuckDB to ~/.duckdb/cli/latest/duckdb. To add the DuckDB binary to your path, append the following line to your shell profile or RC file (e.g., ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc):

export PATH="~/.duckdb/cli/latest":$PATH

You can install past DuckDB releases (all the way back to v1.0.0) using the DUCKDB_VERSION variable. For example, to install v1.2.2, run:

curl https://install.duckdb.org | DUCKDB_VERSION=1.2.2 bash

Installing the C/C++ Libraries

Starting with DuckDB 2.0, the install script can also install the DuckDB C/C++ headers and libraries using the DUCKDB_INSTALL variable. It takes a comma-separated list of components: cli (default), static and shared. For example, to install the static library and the CLI, run:

curl https://install.duckdb.org | DUCKDB_INSTALL=static,cli bash

The libraries and headers are installed to ~/.duckdb/lib/⟨version⟩/release_⟨platform⟩, e.g., ~/.duckdb/lib/2.0.0/release_osx_arm64. For more details, see Linking Extensions.

Windows

On Windows, we provide a beta install script. To use it, run the following command from the Run menu (Win+R) or the Command Prompt:

powershell -NoExit -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "irm https://install.duckdb.org/install.ps1 | iex"