Install fastfetch with Homebrew, apk, chocolatey, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, scoop, winget, zypper

Project links

• Homepage
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• fastfetch

Project history

The official README positions fastfetch as a neofetch-like tool for fetching system information and displaying it attractively. Unlike shell-script-oriented predecessors, fastfetch is written mainly in C and targets performance and customizability across Linux, macOS, Windows, Android, BSDs, Haiku, and SunOS-family systems.

The project documents a 1.0.0 tag series and a large 2.x release line in its Git tags. Its README emphasizes ongoing CI, releases, package availability, platform screenshots, presets, JSON schema documentation, and active support expectations for current versions.

fastfetch uses JSONC configuration and can generate a default config at `~/.config/fastfetch/config.jsonc`. It also exposes a large module system, formatting controls, logo options, JSON output, presets, and warnings about arbitrary shell commands in untrusted configs.

Adoption history

fastfetch adoption grew through the same channels that made neofetch familiar: shell startup screenshots, distro displays, terminal customization, and system inventory snippets. The README explicitly compares it with neofetch and argues for fastfetch on active maintenance, speed, feature count, configurability, polish, and accuracy.

The official README lists install paths across many package ecosystems: Debian and Ubuntu, Arch, Fedora, Gentoo, Alpine, NixOS, openSUSE, Slackware, Void, Homebrew, MacPorts, Scoop, Chocolatey, winget, MSYS2, BSD package managers, and Termux. That unusually broad package coverage is a major part of its adoption story.

How it is used

The simplest use is `fastfetch`, which prints a compact system summary. Users can run `fastfetch -c all.jsonc` to enable all supported modules, `fastfetch -s ... --format json` to extract machine-readable data, or `fastfetch --gen-config` to create a JSONC configuration file.

Customization is the main advanced workflow: users select modules, format fields, choose logos or images, load presets, tune colors, and wire the command into interactive shells. The README also documents practical troubleshooting for privacy-related local IP display, root/Xauthority issues, p10k instant prompt interactions, image protocols, and package-count differences from neofetch.

Why package nerds care

fastfetch is package-nerd significant because it turned a screenshot-culture tool into a cross-platform compiled utility with many optional platform probes. Packaging it well means deciding which detection libraries, image backends, and platform integrations are available while keeping the tool fast and dependency-conscious.

It also became a visible example of replacement-package momentum: once a beloved package becomes unmaintained, distributions and users look for a drop-in-ish successor that is faster, packaged everywhere, and still has maintainers.

Timeline

• 1.0.0: Public tag series existed before the larger 2.x line.
• 2.x: The project expanded release cadence and package availability across desktop, server, mobile, and BSD ecosystems.
• 2025: README notes include current Windows image-protocol support details and broad distribution support.
• 2026: Homebrew, MacPorts, Windows package managers, BSD package managers, Termux, and major Linux distributions are listed as installation options.

Related projects

• neofetch is the direct comparison point and cultural predecessor.
• screenfetch and other system-info display tools occupy the same terminal customization niche.
• p10k, terminal image protocols, JSON schema tooling, and distro package managers appear in fastfetch's documented usage surface.

Sources

• https://github.com/fastfetch-cli/fastfetch
• https://github.com/fastfetch-cli/fastfetch#readme
• https://github.com/fastfetch-cli/fastfetch/wiki/Configuration
• https://github.com/fastfetch-cli/fastfetch/releases
• https://github.com/fastfetch-cli/fastfetch/tags