Chalk Installation Guide

This guide provides detailed instructions for getting Chalk up and running on your system. You can either download a pre-built binary (recommended for most users) or build Chalk from source.

Option 1: Downloading the Chalk Binary

Downloading a pre-built binary is the easiest way to get started with Chalk. The binary is self-contained with no dependencies to install.

All chalk releases are published at https://chalkproject.io/download/.

Chalk supports multiple operating systems and architectures:

• Linux (amd64 and arm64)
• MacOS (only arm64)

1. Download chalk. You can query for the latest published version or download specific version:

   version=$(curl -fsSL https://dl.crashoverride.run/chalk/current-version.txt)
   wget https://dl.crashoverride.run/chalk/chalk-$version-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m){,.sha256}
   

2. Validate checksum:

   # Linux
   sha256sum -c chalk-$version-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m).sha256
   # MacOS
   shasum -a 256 -c chalk-$version-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m).sha256
   

3. Make chalk executable:

   chmod +x chalk-$version-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)
   

4. For convenience add chalk to PATH:

   cp chalk-$version-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m) ~/.local/bin/chalk
   export PATH=~/.local/bin:$PATH
   

5. 🎉 Use chalk:

   chalk version
   

   You should see output showing the version of Chalk you’ve installed.

Option 2: Building Chalk from Source

Building from source gives you the latest features and the ability to customize your build. There are two methods to build Chalk from source: using Docker (recommended) or building directly on your system.

1. Clone the Chalk Repository

   git clone https://github.com/crashappsec/chalk.git
   cd chalk
   

2. Compile chalk:

   1. Use Docker and Docker Compose to built Chalk:

      make
      

   2. Alternatively Chalk can be built without Docker. That will require Nim and musl tool-chains to be installed on the system. We recommend using choosenim to install nim.

      DOCKER= make
      

   The resulting binary will be placed in the current directory.

3. 🎉 Use chalk:

   ./chalk version
   

   This should display the Chalk version.

Next Steps

Chalk ships with extensive documentation for its built-in commands. Access them by running the following:

# Get help
chalk help

# View available commands
chalk help commands

Now that you have Chalk working, you can start using it to mark and track your software artifacts. Refer to the Getting Started Guide for an introduction to Chalk’s capabilities.