Install

Arch, macOS and Windows have a ready-made download. Everywhere else, Bref is compiled on your machine. The first build takes a few minutes.

Compiling needs a recent stable Rust. If rustc --version shows less than 1.88, install Rust with rustup.

Arch Linux

Every release ships a ready-to-install package. No compiler is needed, and pacman tracks it as bref.

curl -LO https://github.com/alarboulletmarin/bref/releases/latest/download/bref-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst
sudo pacman -U ./bref-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst

Download the file first, as above. The package is not signed: given a URL, pacman looks for a .sig file and warns when there is none.

To follow main, build the development package from a checkout. It needs cargo and git, and conflicts with bref.

git clone https://github.com/alarboulletmarin/bref.git
cd bref/aur/bref-git
makepkg -si

To build the latest tagged release yourself, run makepkg -si from the root of the repository.

Bref is not on the AUR yet.

macOS

Download bref-macos.dmg. It runs on Apple Silicon and Intel. Open it and drag Bref to Applications.

The app is not notarized, because that needs a paid Apple Developer account. So macOS blocks the first launch:

1. Open System Settings, then Privacy & Security.
2. Scroll down and click Open Anyway.

Or run this once in a terminal:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Bref.app

To compile it yourself, you need Xcode (the full app, for the Metal shader compiler) and Rust:

git clone https://github.com/alarboulletmarin/bref.git
cd bref
cargo install --path . --locked

This installs the bref command in ~/.cargo/bin, without the .app bundle. Start it from a terminal.

Windows

Download bref-windows-x86_64-setup.exe and run it. It installs for your user only, with no administrator rights, and adds a Start menu entry and an uninstaller.

To install nothing, take bref-windows-x86_64.zip instead. Unzip it anywhere and run bref.exe.

The files are not signed, because a code-signing certificate costs a few hundred euros a year. SmartScreen may show "Windows protected your PC": click More info, then Run anyway.

To compile it yourself, you need the Visual Studio C++ build tools with the Windows SDK, and Rust with the MSVC toolchain:

git clone https://github.com/alarboulletmarin/bref.git
cd bref
cargo install --path . --locked

This installs bref.exe in %USERPROFILE%\.cargo\bin.

Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Debian

1. Install the build tools and libraries:

   sudo apt install build-essential pkg-config libfontconfig-dev libfreetype-dev \
     libwayland-dev libxcb1-dev libxkbcommon-dev libxkbcommon-x11-dev libvulkan1 \
     fonts-noto-color-emoji
   

2. Install Rust with rustup. The cargo from apt is usually too old.

3. Build and install:

   git clone https://github.com/alarboulletmarin/bref.git
   cd bref
   make
   sudo make install
   

Fedora

Follow the steps above with these packages. Their names have not been tested.

sudo dnf install gcc pkgconf-pkg-config fontconfig-devel freetype-devel \
  wayland-devel libxcb-devel libxkbcommon-devel libxkbcommon-x11-devel vulkan-loader \
  google-noto-color-emoji-fonts

Other Linux distributions

You need:

• the development files of fontconfig, freetype, Wayland, libxcb and libxkbcommon (with its X11 part);
• a Vulkan driver for your GPU;
• an emoji font, such as Noto Color Emoji, for 🎉 in notes and names;
• Rust.

Then:

make                    # cargo build --release --locked
sudo make install       # PREFIX=/usr/local by default, PREFIX=/usr for a system-wide install

make install adds the bref command, an entry in your application menu, and its icon. sudo make uninstall removes them.

Upgrading

On Arch (prebuilt package), macOS and Windows (installer), Bref updates itself: click Update in the banner. Otherwise:

Coming from encre

Bref was called encre until version 0.1.4. Your notes are untouched. Settings saved under the old name are still read, and written under the new one the next time they change.