Install

Thu, 07 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Pre-built packages are published for:

Family	Versions	Architectures
Debian	13 (Trixie)	amd64, arm64
Ubuntu	24.04 LTS (Noble), 25.04 (Plucky)	amd64, arm64
Linux Mint	22.x	amd64, arm64
Fedora	43, 44	x86_64, aarch64
RHEL / Rocky / Alma	9, 10	x86_64, aarch64
openSUSE	Leap 16.0	x86_64, aarch64
Arch Linux	rolling	x86_64, aarch64*
macOS	moderatly recent	x86_64, aarch64

* Use the source version.
** Will use prebuilt binary for aarch64 (apple silicon) and automatically build from source for x86_64 (intel).

Debian / Ubuntu / Linux Mint

sudo install -d /etc/apt/keyrings
. /etc/os-release && \
    CODENAME="${UBUNTU_CODENAME:-$VERSION_CODENAME}" && \
    echo "deb [arch=amd64,arm64 signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/lolcatpp.asc] https://lolcatpp.github.io/apt $CODENAME main" \
    | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/lolcatpp.list

curl -fsSL https://lolcatpp.github.io/apt/pubkey.gpg | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/lolcatpp.asc > /dev/null

sudo apt update
sudo apt install lolcat++

Repository: github.com/lolcatpp/apt

Usage

Thu, 07 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Basics

echo "hello, world" | lolcat

Options

Flag	Default	Description
`-p`, `--spread`	`3.0`	Rainbow spread
`-F`, `--freq`	`0.1`	Rainbow frequency
`-S`, `--seed`	`0`	Rainbow seed (`0` = random)
`-a`, `--animate`	off	Enable animation
`-d`, `--duration`	`12`	Animation duration
`-s`, `--speed`	`300.0`	Animation speed
`-i`, `--invert`	off	Invert colors (color the background)
`-t`, `--truecolor`	off	Force 24-bit truecolor mode
`-f`, `--force`	off	Force color output (e.g. when piping)
`-h`, `--help`	N/A	Show help
`-v`, `--version`	N/A	Show version

Examples

# pipe anything
ls -la | lolcat

# rainbow several files
lolcat README.md LICENSE

# tighter rainbow
echo "hello" | lolcat --spread 1.0 --freq 0.3

# animate
echo "hello, world" | lolcat -a -d 5

# invert (color the background, not the text)
echo "hello" | lolcat --invert

# force color when piping into less
ls --color=always | lolcat -f | less -R

Why C++?

The original lolcat is a Ruby script. lolcat++ aims to be drop-in compatible while being faster — nice when you want to use it in init scripts, motd output, or anywhere the Ruby startup time becomes noticeable.