Installation

Prebuilt binary (Linux, x86-64)

The quickest way to get Twitcher is to download the binary attached to the latest release:

curl -LO https://version.helsinki.fi/kraujasp/twitcher/-/releases/permalink/latest/downloads/binaries/twitcher-linux-x86_64
curl -LO https://version.helsinki.fi/kraujasp/twitcher/-/releases/permalink/latest/downloads/binaries/twitcher-linux-x86_64.sha256
sha256sum --check twitcher-linux-x86_64.sha256
chmod +x twitcher-linux-x86_64

Rename it to twitcher and put it somewhere on your PATH once the checksum checks out. The checksum file names the binary as it is built, so verify before renaming.

The URL above always points at the most recent release. To pin a version, use its tag instead:

curl -LO https://version.helsinki.fi/kraujasp/twitcher/-/releases/vX.Y.Z/downloads/binaries/twitcher-linux-x86_64

The binary is compiled for x86-64-v3 (AVX2 and friends) against glibc, so it needs a reasonably recent CPU and Linux distribution. If it dies with Illegal instruction (SIGILL), the CPU is older than AVX2. Build from source in that case. An older glibc shows up as a linker/loader error on startup.

Install from Source

Requirements (source builds)

  • Rust 1.96.0 or later (get it from rustup.rs)
  • clang C compiler (for htslib bindings)
    • Ubuntu/Debian: apt-get install libclang-dev
    • macOS: Xcode Command Line Tools (comes with Xcode or via xcode-select --install)
    • Alpine: apk add clang-dev

The simplest way to install Twitcher from source is via cargo:

cargo install twitcher

This downloads and compiles the latest version, making the twitcher binary available in your PATH.

Building Locally

To build and run from the source repository:

git clone https://version.helsinki.fi/kraujasp/twitcher.git
cd twitcher
cargo build --release -p twitcher

The compiled binary will be at target/release/twitcher.

Verify Installation

Check that installation succeeded:

twitcher --version

Get help for any command:

twitcher help
twitcher help vcf