Download and Installation

blunderDB is a single executable that requires no installation.

The latest version of blunderDB is available under the MIT license:

For an offline consultation, you can also download this documentation in PDF format: https://github.com/kevung/blunderDB/releases/latest/download/blunderDB-0.36.0-en.pdf

Note

blunderDB uses Webview2 for rendering the graphical interface. It is likely that Webview2 is already present natively on your operating system. If not, the first execution of blunderDB will offer to download and install it. No user action is required.

Note

Still on first launch, blunderDB computes the two bearoff tables used by the Eval panel in the background: about six seconds on one core, without asking anything, and the application can be used normally in the meantime. See the Bearoff tab of the configuration.

Which file should I pick?

Every version published on the releases page comes with some thirty files. The table below says which one to take for your system; replace x.y.z with the version number.

System

File

Installation

Windows

blunderDB-windows-x.y.z.exe

Run it directly, nothing to install

macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon)

blunderDB-macos-x.y.z.zip

Unzip, then drag blunderDB.app to Applications

Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint

blunderdb_x.y.z_amd64.deb

sudo apt install ./blunderdb_x.y.z_amd64.deb

Fedora, openSUSE

blunderdb-x.y.z.x86_64.rpm

sudo dnf install ./blunderdb-x.y.z.x86_64.rpm

Arch Linux, Manjaro

AUR package blunderdb-bin

yay -S blunderdb-bin

Any Linux distribution, with Flatpak

blunderDB-x.y.z.flatpak

flatpak install ./blunderDB-x.y.z.flatpak

Other Linux distribution

blunderDB-linux-webkit2gtk-4.1-x.y.z.tar.gz

tar xzf then ./blunderDB

Linux on 64-bit ARM

blunderdb_x.y.z_arm64.deb, blunderdb-x.y.z.aarch64.rpm or blunderDB-linux-arm64-webkit2gtk-4.1-x.y.z.tar.gz

As above, with the arm64/aarch64 file

Server (serve mode, Docker)

image ghcr.io/kevung/blunderdb-serve

docker pull ghcr.io/kevung/blunderdb-serve:x.y.z

The amd64 and x86_64 files are for an Intel or AMD processor — nearly every desktop computer. The arm64 and aarch64 files are for a 64-bit ARM processor: Raspberry Pi 4 and 5, Apple Silicon Macs running Linux, ARM servers. When in doubt, uname -m answers: x86_64 or aarch64. The AUR package blunderdb-bin covers both and picks on its own.

The other files on the page are the raw Linux binaries (see below), the winget and Homebrew manifests (see winget and Homebrew manifests), the documentation as PDF in nine languages, and the .sha256 checksums.

Verifying a download

The two checks described here are optional and intended for advanced users: they are done from the command line and are not part of the installation. Skipping this section does not prevent anything.

Every published file comes with its SHA-256 checksum, in a file of the same name followed by .sha256. Download both into the same folder and check that the file you received is the one that was published:

sha256sum -c blunderdb_x.y.z_amd64.deb.sha256        # Linux
shasum -a 256 -c blunderDB-macos-x.y.z.zip.sha256   # macOS

Get-FileHash .\blunderDB-windows-x.y.z.exe -Algorithm SHA256   # Windows

On Linux and macOS the command prints OK; on Windows, compare the value shown with the content of the .sha256 file. This check is the guarantee available in the absence of code signing (see Windows Annex: what to do if Windows blocks the launch and Mac Annex: Possible Blocking of blunderDB).

Every published file is also accompanied by a build-provenance attestation (SLSA, via Sigstore), proving it was genuinely produced by the repository’s official GitHub build run, with no key to manage:

gh attestation verify blunderdb_x.y.z_amd64.deb --repo kevung/blunderDB

Installing on Linux

Several formats are available for Linux. The packages and archives below make blunderDB executable automatically: unlike the raw binary downloaded through a browser, they avoid having to run chmod +x after every download or update. They also add an entry to the applications menu.

Note

The .deb and .rpm packages associate the .dbx extension (a database exported with a password, see Handing out a database: origin and password) with blunderDB: double-clicking a .dbx file received from someone opens it directly. The .db extension of an ordinary database is deliberately not associated — it is too generic and shared with other software — but such a file still opens normally from blunderDB’s Open menu.

Native packages (.deb / .rpm)

Recommended method on Debian, Ubuntu and Linux Mint (.deb) as well as Fedora and openSUSE (.rpm). The package manager automatically installs the appropriate webkit2gtk dependency. Replace x.y.z with the downloaded version:

sudo apt install ./blunderdb_x.y.z_amd64.deb     # Debian / Ubuntu / Mint
sudo dnf install ./blunderdb-x.y.z.x86_64.rpm    # Fedora / openSUSE

Arch Linux (AUR)

The blunderdb-bin package is available on the AUR and updated automatically by AUR helpers:

yay -S blunderdb-bin      # ou : paru -S blunderdb-bin

Flatpak

The blunderDB-x.y.z.flatpak bundle works on any distribution where Flatpak is installed. It relies on the GNOME 47 runtime, which Flatpak downloads from Flathub if it is missing:

flatpak install ./blunderDB-x.y.z.flatpak
flatpak run io.github.kevung.blunderDB

The bundle is installed from the downloaded file, and updated by installing the one of the next version. The application has access to the home folder to open and save databases. The command line (Command Line Interface (CLI)) is reached with flatpak run io.github.kevung.blunderDB <command>.

.tar.gz archive

For other distributions. Extracting an archive preserves the executable bit, so no chmod is needed:

tar xzf blunderDB-linux-webkit2gtk-4.1-x.y.z.tar.gz
cd blunderDB-linux-webkit2gtk-4.1-x.y.z
./blunderDB

Note

The executable in the archive is named blunderDB, with capitals. The .deb, .rpm, AUR and Flatpak packages also install the lowercase link blunderdb, the name the command-line documentation (Command Line Interface (CLI)) uses; the archive carries the same link next to the executable. To have it on your PATH: ln -s "$PWD/blunderDB" ~/.local/bin/blunderdb.

Raw binary (advanced method)

The raw binary https://github.com/kevung/blunderDB/releases/latest/download/blunderDB-linux-0.36.0 remains available. Since a browser strips the executable bit on download, you must restore it before the first run:

chmod +x ./blunderDB-linux-x.y.z

Note

Two Linux variants are published depending on the webkit2gtk library version. If you get the error libwebkit2gtk-4.0.so.37: cannot open shared object file, your distribution uses webkit2gtk-4.1: use the .deb/.rpm package, the AUR package, or download the dedicated build https://github.com/kevung/blunderDB/releases/latest/download/blunderDB-linux-webkit2gtk-4.1-0.36.0. Native packages select the correct dependency automatically.

Docker image (server mode)

The server mode (Headless mode (server)) does not need the desktop application: every version publishes the ghcr.io/kevung/blunderdb-serve image on the GitHub registry, for linux/amd64 and linux/arm64, under the version tag and under latest:

docker pull ghcr.io/kevung/blunderdb-serve:x.y.z

Starting it, configuring it and the warning about the authenticating proxy are described in Published image.

winget and Homebrew manifests

Every release ships a winget manifest (blunderDB-winget-manifests-x.y.z.zip) and a Homebrew formula (blunderdb-x.y.z.rb) on the releases page, for whoever wants to install blunderDB through these package managers from a local file. Neither is listed in the public winget or Homebrew repositories. Neither changes the nature of the executable: it stays unsigned, and the warnings described below apply as they are.

Windows and Mac warnings

Warning

On Windows, it is possible that it may hesitate to run blunderDB. See: Windows Annex: what to do if Windows blocks the launch for an explanation of why and how to bypass any potential blocks.

Warning

On Mac, it is possible that it may have reservations about running blunderDB. See Mac Annex: Possible Blocking of blunderDB to understand why and bypass any potential blocks.