Spin Pro Logo

Install to Linux

Spin is able to run on any Linux machine that supports Docker. Getting started is as simple as installing Docker, then running a single command to install `spin`.

Prerequisites

You must have a working installation of Docker.

Most Docker documentation will push you to install "Docker Desktop" on your Linux machine. This is completely unnecessary in our opinion. Instead of "Docker Desktop", we suggest installing the "Docker Engine" instead.

Install Docker Engine

Install "Docker Engine" following the official installation instructions:

Configure Docker permissions

Using the post-installation instructions defined by Docker, be sure to add your current user to the docker group if you want to be able to run Docker without root privileges.

Create the "docker" group
sudo groupadd docker
Add your current user to the "docker" group.
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
Activate the changes to groups.
newgrp docker

Ensure Docker is working

To test you have a working version of Docker, you can run their "hello world" container. docker version.

Run a "hello world" container to ensure Docker works correctly
docker run hello-world

Check your Docker Compose Version

Spin is set to run the latest version of Docker Compose (Version 2).

Check your Docker Compose version
docker compose version

If you do not see version 2.x installed, you'll need to update. How to Install Docker Compose V2 →

Download and install spin

Run the installer with this simple command in your terminal

Install Spin (no root permissions required)
bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/serversideup/spin/main/tools/install.sh)"

The above script will install spin at the user level in ~/.spin, using less than 300KB of storage.

Spin will prompt you if you want Spin to modify your PATH variable. If you press "Yes" follow the instructions on the screen. If you press "No" you will need to manually add Spin to your PATH.

Configuring your PATH variable manually

If you did not add spin to your PATH during the installation, you can manually add it to your PATH by adding this to your shell profile:

Run echo $0 in your terminal to figure out which shell you are using.
Add spin to your path
# Add this to `~/.zshrc` or `~/.bash_profile`
export PATH="$HOME/.spin/bin:$PATH"

In order to apply the changes to your current terminal session, you will need to run the source command.

Use the "source" command to apply your profile changes immediately
# If you're using ZSH
source ~/.zshrc

# If you're using Bash
source ~/.bash_profile

Validate it's working

You should be able to run this and get a result 🥳

Confirm spin is working correctly by getting the version
spin version

Install to Windows

Spin is able to run on any Windows machine that supports Windows Subsystem Linux v2 (WLS2). This is a feature developed by Microsoft that allows you to run a Linux distribution on your Windows machine. It is supported in updated versions of Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Install via Composer

Spin can be installed using Composer, a popular PHP package manager. This enables you to make Spin accessible without other developers doing any steps on their end.