Installation on Linux¶

The following distribution-specific packages are officially supported, and they provide an easy way of installing and upgrading Powerline. The packages will automatically do most of the configuration.

Arch Linux (AUR), Python 2 version
Arch Linux (AUR), Python 3 version
Gentoo Live ebuild in raiagent overlay
Powerline package is available for Debian starting from Wheezy (via backports). Use search to get more information.

If used distribution does not have an official package installation guide below should be followed:

Install Python 3.2+, Python 2.6+ or PyPy and pip with setuptools. This step is distribution-specific, so no commands provided.
Install Powerline using one of the following commands:
```
pip install --user powerline-status
```
will get the latest release version and
```
pip install --user git+https://github.com/powerline/powerline
```
will get the latest development version.

Note

Due to the naming conflict with an unrelated project powerline is named powerline-status in PyPI.

Note

Powerline developers should be aware that``pip install –editable`` does not currently fully work. Installation performed this way are missing powerline executable that needs to be symlinked. It will be located in scripts/powerline.

Fonts installation¶

Fontconfig¶

This method only works on Linux. It’s the second recommended method if terminal emulator supports it as patching fonts is not needed, and it generally works with any coding font.

Download the latest version of the symbol font and fontconfig file:

wget https://github.com/powerline/powerline/raw/develop/font/PowerlineSymbols.otf
wget https://github.com/powerline/powerline/raw/develop/font/10-powerline-symbols.conf

Move the symbol font to a valid X font path. Valid font paths can be listed with xset q:
```
mv PowerlineSymbols.otf ~/.local/share/fonts/
```
Update font cache for the path the font was moved to (root privileges may be needed to update cache for the system-wide paths):
```
fc-cache -vf ~/.local/share/fonts/
```
Install the fontconfig file. For newer versions of fontconfig the config path is ~/.config/fontconfig/conf.d/, for older versions it’s ~/.fonts.conf.d/:
```
mv 10-powerline-symbols.conf ~/.config/fontconfig/conf.d/
```

If custom symbols still cannot be seen then try closing all instances of the terminal emulator. Restarting X may be needed for the changes to take effect.

If custom symbols still can’t be seen, double-check that the font have been installed to a valid X font path, and that the fontconfig file was installed to a valid fontconfig path. Alternatively try to install a patched font.

Patched font installation¶

This is the preferred method, but it is not always available because not all fonts were patched and not all fonts can be patched due to licensing issues.

After downloading font the following should be done:

Move the patched font to a valid X font path. Valid font paths can be listed with xset q:
```
mv 'SomeFont for Powerline.otf' ~/.local/share/fonts/
```
Update font cache for the path the font was moved to (root privileges may be needed for updating font cache for some paths):
```
fc-cache -vf ~/.local/share/fonts/
```

After installing patched font terminal emulator, GVim or whatever application powerline should work with must be configured to use the patched font. The correct font usually ends with for Powerline.

If custom symbols cannot be seen then try closing all instances of the terminal emulator. X server may need to be restarted for the changes to take effect.

If custom symbols still can’t be seen then double-check that the font have been installed to a valid X font path.