Installing Salt CLI

Installing Salt CLI

The Salt CLI is distributed as a zipfile that runs under Linux, macOS and Windows. The installation process downloads the zipfile, unzips the downloaded file, and adds a shortcut for running salt in the target platform.

In brief: Assuming that you want to place the Salt CLI in a given <TARGET_DIR> directory:

• For macOS/Linux (bash):

    # download zipfile
    curl -sLO https://get.xygeni.io/latest/salt/salt.zip
    # verify integrity
    SALT_CHECKSUM=$(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xygeni/xygeni/main/checksum/latest/salt.zip.sha256)
    echo "$SALT_CHECKSUM salt.zip" | sha256sum --check
    # unzip
    unzip salt.zip -d <TARGET_DIR>
    # add alias
    alias salt=<TARGET_DIR>/xygeni_salt/salt
  
    salt --help

• For Windows (PowerShell):

  # download zipfile
  iwr https://get.xygeni.io/latest/salt/salt.zip -useb -OutFile salt.zip
  # verify integrity
  set salt_digest (iwr https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xygeni/xygeni/main/checksum/latest/salt.zip.sha256).Content
  (Get-FileHash '.\salt.zip' -Algorithm SHA256).Hash -eq $salt_digest
   # unzip
  Expand-Archive '.\salt.zip' -DestionationPath '<TARGET_DIR>'
  # Or, alternatively, for older PowerShell versions:
  # [System.IO.Compression.ZipFile]::ExtractToDirectory('.\salt.zip', '<TARGET_DIR>')
  # add alias
  Set-Alias -Name salt -Value <PATH_TO_SALT>\salt.ps1

  salt --help

The following sections describe in more detail each step.

Download Salt CLI

Run the one of the following which better matches your preferences:

• For mac/Linux (bash):

    curl -sLO https://get.xygeni.io/latest/salt/salt.zip

• On Windows (PowerShell):

    iwr https://get.xygeni.io/latest/salt/salt.zip -useb -OutFile salt.zip

Verify the Integrity

Xygeni publishes a SHA-256 checksum of published components in the xygeni/xygeni GitHub repository, so you may verify the integrity of a downloaded artifact.

This GitHub repository website is hosted in a completely different platform from the download site. Hackers need to compromise two different sites to keep tampered components, like the scanner or the installation script, undetected by the checksum verification.

To ensure that the downloaded installation script checksum matches the checksum published in Xygeni repository, meaning that probably it was not tampered with:

• On mac/Linux (bash):

  echo "$(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xygeni/xygeni/main/checksum/latest/salt.zip.sha256) salt.zip" | sha256sum --check

  If under macOS, as sha256sum is probably not installed in your host, you may:

  (1) read this to install it,

  (2) or use shasum -a 256 instead or sha256sum if the shasum command is installed,

  echo "$(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xygeni/xygeni/main/checksum/latest/salt.zip.sha256) salt.zip" | sha256 -a 256 --check

• On Windows (PowerShell):

  (Get-FileHash '.\salt.zip' -Algorithm SHA256).Hash -eq `
    (iwr https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xygeni/xygeni/main/checksum/latest/salt.zip.sha256)

Unzip the CLI

TARGET_DIR is the path where the zipfile contents will be extracted. Replace it with your

• For mac/Linux (bash):

    unzip salt.zip -d <TARGET_DIR>

• On Windows (PowerShell):

    Expand-Archive '.\salt.zip' -DestionationPath '<TARGET_DIR>'
    # Or, alternatively, for older PowerShell versions:
    # [System.IO.Compression.ZipFile]::ExtractToDirectory('.\salt.zip', '<TARGET_DIR>')

In what follows, the location of the Salt CLI is TARGET_DIR/xygeni_salt

Set Alias for Salt

The Salt CLI command is either a bash salt or PowerShell salt.ps1 script under TARGET_DIR/xygeni_salt. It is convenient to use an alias for running the command without providing its full path. You may add TARGET_DIR/xygeni_salt to the PATH, or alternatively add an alias or shell function:

• For mac/Linux (bash):

    alias salt=<TARGET_DIR>/xygeni_salt/salt

• On Windows (PowerShell):

    Set-Alias -Name salt -Value <PATH_TO_SALT>\salt.ps1

The salt CLI is now available for running using salt alias. Run salt --help to show the help for the different commands available.

You may add the --no-banner | -nb to the alias to hide the SALT banner, so logfiles are leaner: alias salt='<TARGET_DIR>/xygeni_salt/salt -nb'