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 $CODENAME main" \
| sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/lolcatpp.list
curl -fsSL https://lolcatpp.github.io/apt/pubkey.gpg | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/lolcatpp.asc > /dev/null
sudo apt update
sudo apt install lolcat++
Repository: github.com/lolcatpp/apt
Fedora / RHEL / Rocky / Alma
. /etc/os-release
case "$ID" in
fedora) family="fedora-${VERSION_ID}" ;;
rhel|rocky|almalinux) family="rhel-${VERSION_ID%%.*}" ;;
*) echo "unsupported distro: $ID"; exit 1 ;;
esac
sudo curl -fsSLo /etc/yum.repos.d/lolcatpp.repo "https://lolcatpp.github.io/rpm/${family}/lolcatpp.repo"
sudo dnf install -y lolcat++
openSUSE Leap
. /etc/os-release
sudo zypper addrepo --gpgcheck \
"https://lolcatpp.github.io/rpm/opensuse-leap-${VERSION_ID}/lolcatpp.repo"
sudo rpm --import https://lolcatpp.github.io/rpm/pubkey.gpg
sudo zypper install lolcat++
Repository: github.com/lolcatpp/rpm
Arch Linux (AUR)
# source build
yay -S lolcat++
# pre-built binary
yay -S lolcat++-bin
macOS (Homebrew)
brew install lolcatpp/tap/lolcatpp
Windows
Download the latest lolcat-windows-amd64.exe from the Releases page and place it somewhere on your PATH.
After installing
lolcat --help prints the full set of options:

Building from source
git clone https://github.com/lolcatpp/lolcatpp
cd lolcatpp
cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build --parallel
sudo cmake --install build
Requires CMake 3.26+, a C++20 compiler, and Boost.ProgramOptions. See the README for full details.