Install tig with Homebrew, apk, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, zypper

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• tig

Project history

Tig grew around a simple package-manager-friendly idea: keep Git's command-line model, but make repository history, diffs, refs, blame, status, and staging navigable in a terminal UI. The manual explicitly says Tig uses underlying Git commands to present views such as commit logs, diffs, trees, blobs, blame, refs, status, stashes, grep results, and pager input.

The public GitHub repository was created in March 2009, and the official release notes show the project continuing through the 2.x series with ongoing fixes, Unicode updates, Git integration changes, editor behavior, blame improvements, status/stage workflow refinements, and security fixes such as the 2.6.1 editor command injection fix.

Tig's design has stayed deliberately close to Git rather than becoming a separate repository manager. Its manual documents that command-line Git options are passed through, Git output can be piped into pager mode, and user-defined commands can reference the current commit, branch, file, line, stash, or repository state.

Adoption history

The input package facts list Tig across Homebrew, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora/dnf, Alpine/apk, Arch/pacman, openSUSE/zypper, MacPorts, and Nix. That broad packaging footprint matches Tig's long-standing role as a standard terminal companion for Git users.

GitHub repository metadata also shows a large user base for a C/ncurses terminal tool, with many forks and stars and topics including git, ncurses, and tui. For a package database, this is a strong signal that Tig is not just a niche wrapper but a mature CLI application with cross-platform package visibility.

Tig's adoption tracks the popularity of text UIs among developers who want richer navigation than git log or git status without leaving SSH sessions, tmux panes, or minimal development environments.

How it is used

Common usage is interactive repository browsing: users run tig in a Git worktree to inspect commit history, open diffs, jump into blame, browse trees, inspect refs, and move between views from a single terminal screen.

Tig is also used as a pager. The manual shows piping git show into tig, and the README says it can act as a pager for output from various Git commands, which makes it useful in aliases and scripts that preserve Git's native output while adding navigation and color.

Its status and stage views matter to daily Git users because they allow staging and unstaging changes, including chunk-level staging, without starting a graphical Git client.

Why package nerds care

Tig is a canonical package-nerd tool: small name, huge day-to-day leverage, packaged everywhere, and useful immediately after brew install tig on a new machine. It represents the Unix packaging sweet spot where a binary depends on familiar libraries and composes with the command line rather than replacing it.

For maintainers and power users, Tig is also interesting because its behavior is tied to Git versions, ncurses, Unicode handling, shells, editors, and terminal quirks. The release notes read like a history of practical terminal-Git edge cases, which is exactly why distributions keep shipping current builds.

Timeline

• 2009: GitHub repository for jonas/tig created.
• 2010s: Tig becomes widely packaged as a terminal interface for Git repositories.
• 2024-2026: 2.5 and 2.6 release notes document continued work on Unicode, blame, status/stage behavior, Git maintenance refs, Apple Silicon build adjustments, and security fixes.
• 2026: 2.6.1 release notes document a security fix for an editor command injection vulnerability affecting 2.6.0.

Related projects

• Tig is directly tied to Git: it shells out to Git commands and presents Git logs, diffs, refs, blame, status, stash, and grep views.
• Its closest package-neighbor category is terminal Git clients and TUIs, but official documentation frames it as a text-mode interface and pager rather than a replacement Git implementation.

Sources

• https://api.github.com/repos/jonas/tig - GitHub repository metadata for creation date, language, topics, and adoption signals.
• https://github.com/jonas/tig#readme - official README for purpose, bug-report channels, release-note pointers, and resource links.
• https://github.com/jonas/tig/blob/master/NEWS.adoc - official release notes for ongoing maintenance and security/history details.
• https://github.com/jonas/tig/blob/master/doc/manual.adoc - official manual for pager mode, Git command passthrough, and repository views.