+++ title = "Installing MixEngine" slug = "install" order = 2 summary = "The installer for your system, what it touches, what it deliberately does not, and how to check what you downloaded." +++ # Installing MixEngine > **This handbook covers MixEngine through the `mix` command line.** If you would rather work in > a graphical interface, download the **MixDB** app at > [https://lab.mixnz.com/#mixdb](https://lab.mixnz.com/#mixdb). MixDB drives the same MixEngine, > so everything in this handbook still applies. Every build is published on the project's GitHub releases page, with a checksum and a signature beside it. Pick the file for your system below. Installing changes as little as it can: nothing is added to your certificate store, your DNS settings or your firewall until the day you ask for something that needs it — see [What MixEngine asks permission for](./permissions.md). **No stable release exists yet.** Every download link below is a permanent URL that GitHub always resolves to whichever release is newest and *not* a pre-release, so once the first one ships these links go live with no edit to this page. Until then, get the newest pre-release by hand from [the releases page](https://github.com/mixnz/mixengine/releases) — right now that is `v0.0.1-beta.1`. ## What you are installing Four programs, and it is worth knowing what each is before one of them surprises you. | Program | What it does | | --- | --- | | `mixengined` | The daemon. It owns everything MixEngine knows and supervises everything it runs. | | `mix` | The command you type. It asks the daemon and prints the answer. | | `mixengine-shim` | The stand-in for `php`, `node`, `python` and `ruby` that picks the right version. | | `mixengine-elevate` | The one program that runs as an administrator, for a few seconds at a time. | The first three are installed together, as you. The fourth is not placed by the installer at all on most systems — MixEngine installs it itself, the first time something needs an administrator, inside a prompt you were going to see anyway. ## Windows [**Download the installer**](https://github.com/mixnz/mixengine/releases/latest/download/mixengine-windows-x86_64-setup.exe) · [portable zip](https://github.com/mixnz/mixengine/releases/latest/download/mixengine-windows-x86_64.zip) · Windows ARM: [installer](https://github.com/mixnz/mixengine/releases/latest/download/mixengine-windows-aarch64-setup.exe), [zip](https://github.com/mixnz/mixengine/releases/latest/download/mixengine-windows-aarch64.zip) Two files are published, and either is a complete install. - **`mixengine--windows-x86_64-setup.exe`** — a per-user installer. It writes into your own profile and puts its directory on your `PATH`, so no administrator prompt is involved and neither is anybody else's account on the machine. - **`mixengine--windows-x86_64.zip`** — the same programs in a folder. Extract it wherever you like and run `mix.exe` from there. Windows ARM builds are published beside them, named `aarch64`. **Expect a SmartScreen warning.** MixEngine is not signed with an Authenticode certificate, so Windows shows *"Windows protected your PC"* and hides the button behind **More info → Run anyway**. That is a statement about a certificate nobody has bought, not about the file: check the signature below if you want a real answer about what you downloaded. The warning tends to come back with every release, because reputation with no publisher identity accrues to a file rather than to a project. ## macOS [**Download the package**](https://github.com/mixnz/mixengine/releases/latest/download/mixengine-macos-universal.pkg) **`mixengine--macos-universal.pkg`**, one package for both Intel and Apple silicon. MixEngine has no Apple Developer ID either, so double-clicking the package in Finder gets you a Gatekeeper dialog and, on macOS 15 and later, a trip through **System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway**. Installing from a terminal avoids all of that: ```bash sudo installer -pkg mixengine-*-macos-universal.pkg -target / ``` That is the instruction to reach for first on a command-line product. The package runs as root, so it also places the privileged helper for you. ## Linux [**`.deb`**](https://github.com/mixnz/mixengine/releases/latest/download/mixengine_amd64.deb) · [**`.rpm`**](https://github.com/mixnz/mixengine/releases/latest/download/mixengine-x86_64.rpm) · [**`.AppImage`**](https://github.com/mixnz/mixengine/releases/latest/download/mixengine-linux-x86_64.AppImage) · arm64: [`.deb`](https://github.com/mixnz/mixengine/releases/latest/download/mixengine_arm64.deb), [`.rpm`](https://github.com/mixnz/mixengine/releases/latest/download/mixengine-aarch64.rpm), [`.AppImage`](https://github.com/mixnz/mixengine/releases/latest/download/mixengine-linux-aarch64.AppImage) Three files, each a complete install: - **`.deb`** for Debian, Ubuntu and their relatives - **`.rpm`** for Fedora, RHEL and openSUSE - **`.AppImage`**, which needs no package manager and no root at all ```bash sudo dpkg -i mixengine_*_amd64.deb sudo rpm -i mixengine-*.x86_64.rpm chmod +x mixengine-*-linux-x86_64.AppImage && ./mixengine-*-linux-x86_64.AppImage ``` Both packages are built against glibc 2.28, so they run on the long-term-support distributions they are aimed at rather than only on something as new as the machine that built them. `aarch64` builds are published beside the `x86_64` ones. ## From source MixEngine is Rust, and nothing else: ```bash git clone https://github.com/mixnz/mixengine.git cd mixengine cargo build --release ``` The binaries land in `target/release/`. This is the fourth way of installing that runs entirely as you, which is why placing the privileged helper is never a packager's job. ## Checking what you downloaded Two files sit beside every artifact, and they answer different questions. ```bash sha256sum -c mixengine-*-linux-x86_64.tar.gz.sha256 minisign -Vm mixengine-*-linux-x86_64.tar.gz -P ``` The `.sha256` tells you whether two downloads of the same file are the same file. **It is not a signature** and is not offered as one: anybody who could replace the artifact could replace the checksum beside it. The unversioned files the links above point at carry their own `.sha256` and `.minisig`, named after themselves rather than after the versioned file they are a copy of. The `.minisig` is the real answer — an Ed25519 signature MixEngine's own release pipeline makes, against a public key committed in this project's repository as `packaging/updates.pub` and compiled into MixEngine itself. That is the same key `mix self-update` checks before it replaces anything. ## After installing Open a new terminal — the installer changed your `PATH`, and a shell that was already running has not heard about it — and ask: ```bash mix status ``` The first `mix` command starts the daemon if it is not already running. What you should see is a healthy daemon, its version, and nothing being supervised yet. Then put the runtime commands on your `PATH`, which is a separate step because it is a separate directory: ```bash mix path install ``` That fills `/bin` with the shims that make `php`, `node`, `python` and `ruby` resolve to the version each directory asks for, rather than to one version for the whole machine. ## What the installer did not do Nothing outside your own account, and nothing to the rest of the machine: - **No certificate authority** was installed. That happens the first time you ask for HTTPS. - **No DNS or hosts change** was made. That happens the first time you create a site. - **No firewall rule** and **no port grant**. Those happen when a site needs them. - **No runtime and no server** was downloaded. MixEngine installs PHP, MariaDB and the rest on request, and only the versions you ask for. - **Nothing was registered to start at login.** `mix autostart enable` is how that becomes true. Every one of those is described in [What MixEngine asks permission for](./permissions.md), including what each prompt will literally change before you agree to it. Ready? [Your first site](./getting-started.md) takes about five minutes.