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balena CLI Installation Instructions for macOS
These instructions are for the recommended installation option. Advanced users may also be interested in advanced installation options.
Selected operating system: macOS
-
Download the installer from the latest release page. Look for a file name that ends with "-installer.pkg":
balena-cli-vX.Y.Z-macOS-x64-installer.pkg -
Double click the downloaded file to run the installer. After the installation completes, close and re-open any open command terminal windows (so that the changes made by the installer to the PATH environment variable can take effect).
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Check that the installation was successful by running the following commands on a command terminal:
balena version- should print the CLI's versionbalena help- should print a list of available commands
No further steps are required to run most CLI commands. The balena ssh, build, deploy
and preload commands may require additional software to be installed, as described below.
Additional Dependencies
build and deploy
These commands require Docker or balenaEngine to be available (on a local or remote machine). Most users will simply follow Docker's installation instructions to install Docker on the same laptop (dev machine) where the balena CLI is installed. The advanced installation options document describes other possibilities.
balena ssh
The balena ssh command requires the ssh command-line tool to be available. To check whether
it is already installed, run ssh on a Terminal window. If it is not yet installed, the options
include:
- Download the Xcode Command Line Tools from https://developer.apple.com/downloads
- Or, if you have Xcode installed, open Xcode, choose Preferences → General → Downloads → Components → Command Line Tools → Install.
- Or, install Homebrew, then
brew install openssh
The balena ssh command also requires an SSH key to be added to your balena account: see SSH
Access documentation. The balena key*
command set can also be used to list and manage SSH keys: see balena help -v.
balena preload
Like the build and deploy commands, the preload command requires Docker, with the additional
restriction that Docker must be installed on the local machine (because Docker's bind mounting
feature is used). Also, for some device types (such as the Raspberry Pi), the preload command
requires Docker to support the AUFS storage
driver. Unfortunately, Docker Desktop
for Windows dropped support for the AUFS filesystem in Docker CE versions greater than 18.06.1. The
present workaround is to either:
- Downgrade Docker Desktop to version 18.06.1. Link: Docker CE for Mac
- Install the balena CLI on a Linux machine (as Docker for Linux still supports AUFS). A Linux Virtual Machine also works, but a Docker container is not recommended.
Long term, we are working on replacing AUFS with overlay2 for the affected device types.