install-linux.md

title	weight	description
Installing on Linux	20	How to install Inspektor Gadget on Linux

• Installing ig
  • Install a specific release
  • Compile from source
• Experimental features

Installing ig

The ig tool can be built and installed independently. The result is a single binary (statically linked) that can be copied to a Kubernetes node or any host to trace its containers.

Install a specific release

It is possible to download the asset for a given release and platform from the releases page.

For instance, to download the latest release for linux-amd64:

$ IG_VERSION=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/inspektor-gadget/inspektor-gadget/releases/latest | jq -r .tag_name)
$ IG_ARCH=amd64
$ curl -sL https://github.com/inspektor-gadget/inspektor-gadget/releases/download/${IG_VERSION}/ig-linux-${IG_ARCH}-${IG_VERSION}.tar.gz | sudo tar -C /usr/local/bin -xzf - ig
$ ig version

Compile from source

ig is built using a Docker container relying on Docker Buildx, so you don't have to worry about installing dependencies:

$ make ig
$ sudo cp ig /usr/local/bin/

Experimental features

Inspektor Gadget has some experimental features disabled by default. Users can enable those features, however they don't provide any stability and could be removed at any time.

Experimental features can be enabled in ig by using the IG_EXPERIMENTAL env variable.

$ sudo IG_EXPERIMENTAL=true ig trace exec
INFO[0000] Experimental features enabled
...

# pass -E if using export and sudo
$ export IG_EXPERIMENTAL=true
$ sudo -E ig trace exec
INFO[0000] Experimental features enabled
...