Installing the stand-alone IBM Cloud CLI

Before you begin

If you need to use a 32-bit version, or a previous version other than the latest for IBM Cloud Dedicated environments, see IBM Cloud CLI releases.

Installing with an installer

Use the following steps to install the latest stand-alone IBM Cloud CLI:

1. Use a browser to access the official ibm-cloud-cli-releases GitHub repository, and select the installer of your OS to begin the download. The following operating systems are supported: macOS X 64-bit, Windows™ 64-bit, Linux™ x86 64-bit, and Linux™ LE 64-bit (ppc64le).

2. Run the installer:

   • For Mac and Windows™, run the installer.
   • For Linux™, extract the package and run the install script.

3. Log in to IBM Cloud:

   ibmcloud login
   

   Now, you're ready to manage IBM Cloud resources. Enter ibmcloud help to view the command descriptions.

   If you're using a federated ID, log in with a one-time passcode or an API key.

Installing from the shell

To install the latest CLI for your OS from the shell manually, use the following command for your OS:

If you don't want to install from the shell because it might use root permissions, you can download and run the installer.

• For Mac, copy and paste the following command to a terminal and run it:

  curl -fsSL https://clis.cloud.ibm.com/install/osx | sh
  

• For Linux™, copy and paste the following command to a terminal and run it:

  curl -fsSL https://clis.cloud.ibm.com/install/linux | sh
  

• For Windows™, copy and paste the following command to a Windows™ PowerShell 5 terminal console and run it:

  iex (New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://clis.cloud.ibm.com/install/powershell')
  

  If you encounter errors like The underlying connection was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a send, make sure that you have .Net Framework 4.5 or later installed. Also try to enable TLS 1.2 protocol by running the following command:

  [Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12
  

Installing to a custom directory

When you use installers or a shell script to install the IBM Cloud CLI, it is installed in your system directories. If you want to specify a different directory, use the following steps.

If you install the IBM Cloud CLI to a custom directory, the ibmcloud update command can't be used to update the CLI.

1. Use a browser to access the official ibm-cloud-cli-releases GitHub repository, and select the matching binary of your platform to begin the download. The following platforms are supported: macOS, linux32, linux64, ppc64le, win32, and win64.

2. Extract the package to a directory that you specify.

   You can see the following extracted content:

   For Linux™ and Mac:

   IBM_Cloud_CLI
   ├── LICENSE
   ├── NOTICE
   ├── autocomplete
   │   ├── bash_autocomplete
   │   └── zsh_autocomplete
   ├── ibmcloud
   └── ibmcloud-analytics
   

   For Windows™:

   IBM_Cloud_CLI
   ├── LICENSE
   ├── NOTICE
   ├── ibmcloud-analytics.exe
   └── ibmcloud.exe
   

3. Add to the PATH environment variable and enable shell autocompletion.

   • Add the {YOUR_DIRECTORY}/IBM_CLOUD_CLI to the PATH environment variable.
   • For shell autocompletion support (Mac and Linux™ only), see Enabling shell autocompletion for IBM Cloud CLI.

Updating the IBM Cloud CLI

Use the latest version of the CLI. If you aren't using the latest version, run the following command to update your CLI:

ibmcloud update

To determine your IBM Cloud CLI version, run the following command:

ibmcloud -v

If you are running the current release, the following output is displayed:

Checking for updates...
No update required. Your CLI is already up-to-date.

To get notified about new IBM Cloud CLI releases, subscribe to the IBM Cloud CLI releases repository.