DDEV Installation¶

macOS¶

Homebrew¶

Homebrew is the easiest way to install and upgrade DDEV:

brew install ddev/ddev/ddev

brew upgrade ddev

As a one-time initialization, run

mkcert -install

Install Script¶

Run the install script to install or update DDEV. It downloads, verifies, and sets up the ddev binary:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ddev/ddev/master/scripts/install_ddev.sh | bash

You can include a -s <version> argument to install a specific release or a prerelease version:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ddev/ddev/master/scripts/install_ddev.sh | bash -s v1.21.4

We recommend enabling Mutagen for the best performance; enable with ddev config global --mutagen-enabled.

Linux¶

Debian/Ubuntu¶

DDEV’s Debian and RPM packages work with apt and yum repositories and most variants that use them, including Windows WSL2:

curl -fsSL https://apt.fury.io/drud/gpg.key | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/ddev.gpg > /dev/null
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/ddev.gpg] https://apt.fury.io/drud/ * *" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ddev.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y ddev

Update with your usual commands:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

sudo rm -f /usr/local/bin/ddev /usr/local/bin/mkcert /usr/local/bin/*ddev_nfs_setup.sh

Fedora, Red Hat, etc.¶

echo '[ddev]
name=DDEV Repo
baseurl=https://yum.fury.io/drud/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0' | sudo tee -a /etc/yum.repos.d/ddev.repo

sudo dnf install --refresh ddev

In the future you can update as usual using sudo dnf upgrade ddev. (Signed repository support will be added in the near future.)

Arch Linux¶

For Arch-based systems including Arch Linux, EndeavourOS and Manjaro, we maintain the ddev-bin package in AUR. To install, use yay -S ddev-bin or whatever other AUR tool you use; to upgrade yay -Syu ddev-bin.

As a one-time initialization, run mkcert -install.

Alternate Linux Install Methods¶

You can also use two macOS install methods to install or update DDEV on Linux: Homebrew (only on AMD64 computers) and the standalone install script.

Windows¶

You can install DDEV on Windows three ways:

1. Using WSL2 with Docker inside
2. Using WSL2 with Docker Desktop
3. Installing directly on traditional Windows with an installer

We strongly recommend using WSL2. While its Linux experience may be new for some Windows users, it’s worth the performance benefit and common experience of working with Ubuntu and Bash.

Important Considerations for WSL2 and DDEV¶

• WSL2 is supported on Windows 10 and 11.
  All Windows 10/11 editions, including Windows 10 Home support WSL2.
• WSL2 offers a faster, smoother experience.
  It’s vastly more performant, and you’re less likely to have obscure Windows problems.
• Projects should live in the Linux filesystem.
  WSL2’s Linux filesystem (e.g. /home/<your_username>) is much faster, so keep your projects there and not in the slower Windows filesystem (/mnt/c).
• Custom hostnames are managed via the Windows hosts file, not within WSL2.
  DDEV attempts to manage custom hostnames via the Windows-side hosts file—usually at C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts—and it can only do this if it’s installed on the Windows side. (DDEV inside WSL2 uses ddev.exe on the Windows side as a proxy to update the Windows hosts file.) If ddev.exe --version shows the same version as ddev --version you’re all set up. Otherwise, install DDEV on Windows using choco upgrade -y ddev or by downloading and running the Windows installer. (The WSL2 scripts below install DDEV on the Windows side, taking care of that for you.) If you frequently run into Windows UAC Escalation, you can calm it down by running gsudo.exe cache on and gsudo.exe config CacheMode auto, see gsudo docs.
• WSL2 is not the same as Docker Desktop’s WSL2 engine.
  Using WSL2 to install and run DDEV is not the same as using Docker Desktop’s WSL2 engine, which itself runs in WSL2, but can serve applications running in both traditional Windows and inside WSL2.

The WSL2 install process involves:

• Installing Chocolatey package manager (optional).
• One time initialization of mkcert.
• Installing WSL2 and installing a distro like Ubuntu.
• Optionally installing Docker Desktop for Windows and enabling WSL2 integration with the distro (if you’re using the Docker Desktop approach).
• Installing DDEV inside your distro; this is normally done by running one of the two scripts below, but can be done manually step-by-step as well.

WSL2 + Docker CE Inside Install Script¶

This scripted installation prepares your default WSL2 Ubuntu distro and has no dependency on Docker Desktop. It is designed to be able to run multiple times without breaking anything.

The provided PowerShell script can do most of the work for you, or you can handle these things manually. (This script works with the built-in PowerShell v5, but not with the newer v7.)

In all cases:

1. Install WSL2 with an Ubuntu distro.

   • Install WSL with

     wsl --install
     

   • Reboot if required. (Usually required.)

   • Visit the Microsoft Store and install the updated “Windows Subsystem for Linux” and click “Open”. It will likely prompt you for a username and password for the Ubuntu WSL2 instance it creates.

   • Verify that you now have an Ubuntu distro set as default by running wsl.exe -l -v

   If you already have WSL2 but don’t have an Ubuntu distro, install one by running wsl.exe --install Ubuntu.

   If that doesn’t work for you, see the manual installation and linked troubleshooting.

2. In an administrative PowerShell (5) run this PowerShell script by executing:

   Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; 
   iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ddev/ddev/master/scripts/install_ddev_wsl2_docker_inside.ps1'))
   

3. In Windows Update Settings → Advanced Options enable Receive updates for other Microsoft products. You may want to occasionally run wsl.exe --update as well.

Now you can use the “Ubuntu” terminal app or Windows Terminal to access your Ubuntu distro, which has DDEV and Docker working inside it.

WSL2 + Docker Desktop Install Script¶

This scripted installation prepares your default WSL2 Ubuntu distro for use with Docker Desktop. It is designed to be able to run multiple times without breaking anything.

You can do these things manually, or you can do most of it with the provided PowerShell (5) script. In all cases:

1. Install WSL2 with an Ubuntu distro. On a system without WSL2, run:

   wsl --install
   

   Verify that you have an Ubuntu distro set as the default default with wsl -l -v.

   If you already have WSL2 but don’t have an Ubuntu distro, install one with wsl --install Ubuntu.

   If that doesn’t work for you, see the manual installation and linked troubleshooting.

   If you prefer to use another Ubuntu distro, install it and set it as default. For example, wsl --set-default Ubuntu-22.04.

2. Visit the Microsoft Store and install the updated “Windows Subsystem for Linux”, then click Open. It will likely prompt you for a username and password for the Ubuntu WSL2 instance it creates.

3. In Windows Update Settings → Advanced Options enable Receive updates for other Microsoft products. You may want to occasionally run wsl.exe --update as well.

4. Install Docker Desktop. If you already have Chocolatey, run choco install -y docker-desktop or download Docker Desktop from Docker.

5. Start Docker Desktop. You should now be able to run docker ps in PowerShell or Git Bash.
6. In Docker Desktop → Settings → Resources → WSL2 Integration, verify that Docker Desktop is integrated with your distro.

7. In an administrative PowerShell (5) run this PowerShell script by executing:

   Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; 
   iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ddev/ddev/master/scripts/install_ddev_wsl2_docker_desktop.ps1'))
   

8. In Windows Update Settings → Advanced Options enable Receive updates for other Microsoft products. You may want to occasionally run wsl.exe --update as well.

Now you can use the “Ubuntu” terminal app or Windows Terminal to access your Ubuntu distro, which has DDEV and Docker Desktop integrated with it.

WSL2/Docker Desktop Manual Installation¶

You can do all of the steps manually of course:

1. Install Chocolatey:

   Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; 
   iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))`
   

2. In an administrative PowerShell: choco install -y ddev mkcert
3. In an administrative PowerShell, run mkcert -install and answer the prompt allowing the installation of the Certificate Authority.
4. In an administrative PowerShell, run the command $env:CAROOT="$(mkcert -CAROOT)"; setx CAROOT $env:CAROOT; If ($Env:WSLENV -notlike "*CAROOT/up:*") { $env:WSLENV="CAROOT/up:$env:WSLENV"; setx WSLENV $Env:WSLENV }. This will set WSL2 to use the Certificate Authority installed on the Windows side. In some cases it takes a reboot to work correctly.
5. In administrative PowerShell, run the command wsl --install. This will install WSL2 and Ubuntu for you. Reboot when this is done.
6. Docker Desktop for Windows: If you already have the latest Docker Desktop, configure it in the General Settings to use the WSL2-based engine. Otherwise install the latest Docker Desktop for Windows and select the WSL2-based engine (not legacy Hyper-V) when installing. Install via Chocolatey with choco install docker-desktop or it can be downloaded from desktop.docker.com. Start Docker. It may prompt you to log out and log in again, or reboot.
7. Go to Docker Desktop’s Settings → Resources → WSL integration → enable integration for your distro. Now docker commands will be available from within your WSL2 distro.
8. Double-check in PowerShell: wsl -l -v should show three distros, and your Ubuntu should be the default. All three should be WSL version 2.
9. Double-check in Ubuntu (or your distro): echo $CAROOT should show something like /mnt/c/Users/<you>/AppData/Local/mkcert
10. Check that Docker is working inside Ubuntu (or your distro): docker ps
11. Open the WSL2 terminal, for example Ubuntu from the Windows start menu.

12. Install DDEV using

    curl https://apt.fury.io/drud/gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -
    echo "deb https://apt.fury.io/drud/ * *" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ddev.list
    sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y ddev
    

13. In WSL2 run mkcert -install.

You have now installed DDEV on WSL2. If you’re using WSL2 for DDEV (recommended), remember to run all ddev commands inside the WSL2 distro.

To upgrade DDEV in WSL2 Ubuntu, run apt upgrade ddev as described in the Linux installation section.

Traditional Windows¶

If you must use traditional Windows without WSL2, you’ll probably want to enable Mutagen for the best performance.

• We recommend using Chocolatey. Once installed, you can run choco install ddev docker-desktop git from an administrative shell. You can upgrade by running ddev poweroff && choco upgrade ddev.
• Each DDEV release includes a Windows installer (ddev_windows_installer.<version>.exe). After running that, you can open a new Git Bash, PowerShell, or cmd.exe window and start using DDEV.

Most traditional Windows users will want to enable Mutagen for superb performance; no installation is required; run ddev config global --mutagen-enabled. It still won’t be as fast as one of the WSL2 options.

Most people interact with DDEV on Windows using Git Bash, part of the Windows Git suite. Although DDEV does work with cmd.exe and PowerShell, it’s more at home in Bash. You can install Git Bash with Chocolatey by running choco install -y git.

Gitpod¶

DDEV is fully supported in Gitpod, where you don’t have to install anything at all.

Choose any of the following methods to launch your project:

1. Open any repository using Gitpod, run brew install ddev/ddev/ddev, and use DDEV!
   • You can install your web app there, or import a database.
   • You may want to implement one of the ddev pull provider integrations to pull from a hosting provider or an upstream source.
2. Use the ddev-gitpod-launcher form to launch a repository.
   You’ll provide a source repository and click a button to open a newly-established environment. You can specify a companion artifacts repository and automatically load db.sql.gz and files.tgz from it. (More details in the repository’s README.)
3. Save the following link to your bookmark bar: Open in ddev-gitpod.
   It’s easiest to drag the link into your bookmarks. When you’re on a Git repository, click the bookmark to open it with DDEV in Gitpod. It does the same thing as the second option, but it works on non-Chrome browsers and you can use native browser keyboard shortcuts.

It can be complicated to get private databases and files into Gitpod, so in addition to the launchers, the git provider example demonstrates pulling a database and files without complex setup or permissions. This was created explicitly for Gitpod integration, because in Gitpod you typically already have access to private Git repositories, which are a fine place to put a starter database and files. Although ddev-gitpod-launcher and the web extension provide the capability, you may want to integrate a Git provider—or one of the other providers—for each project.

GitHub Codespaces¶

You can use DDEV in remote GitHub Codespaces, skipping the requirement to run Docker locally.

Start by creating a new codespace for your project, or open an existing one. Next, edit the project configuration to add Docker-in-Docker support along with DDEV. Pick one of these methods:

• Visit your project’s GitHub repository and click the Code dropdown → Codespaces tab → … to the right of “Codespaces” → Configure dev container. This will open a devcontainer.json file you can edit with the details below.

• Open your project’s codespace directly, edit the .devcontainer/devcontainer.json file, and rebuild the container with VS Code’s “Codespaces: Rebuild Container” action. (⌘ + SHIFT + P on a Mac or CTRL + SHIFT + P on Windows, then search for “rebuild”.)

Your updated devcontainer.json file may differ depending on your project, but you should have docker-in-docker and install-ddev in the features section:

{
    "image": "mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/universal:2",
    "features": {
        "ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/docker-in-docker:1": {},
        "ghcr.io/ddev/ddev/install-ddev:latest": {}
    },
    "portsAttributes": {
      "3306": {
        "label": "database"
      },
      "8027": {
        "label": "mailhog"
      },
      "8036": {
        "label": "phpmyadmin"
      },
      "8080": {
        "label": "web http"
      },
      "8443": {
        "label": "web https"
      }
    },
    "postCreateCommand": "bash -c 'ddev config global --omit-containers=ddev-router && ddev config --auto && ddev debug download-images'"
}

Manual¶

DDEV is a single executable, so installation on any OS is a matter of copying the ddev binary for your architecture into the appropriate system path on your machine.

• Download and extract the latest DDEV release for your architecture.
• Move ddev to /usr/local/bin with mv ddev /usr/local/bin/ (may require sudo), or another directory in your $PATH as preferred.
• Run ddev to test your installation. You should see DDEV’s command usage output.

• As a one-time initialization, run mkcert -install, which may require your sudo password.

  If you don’t have mkcert installed, download the latest release for your architecture and sudo mv <downloaded_file> /usr/local/bin/mkcert && sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/mkcert.