How do I install the latest version of cmake from the command line?

I am trying to install latest cmake in my linux box and I am always getting the below exception -

userName@phx5qa01c-4e23:~/build$ wget
--2013-10-08 14:39:55--
Resolving 66.194.253.19
Connecting to failed: Connection timed out.
Retrying.
--2013-10-08 14:40:17-- (try: 2)
Connecting to failed: Connection timed out.
Retrying.
--2013-10-08 14:40:40-- (try: 3)
Connecting to

It is always retrying... Any thoughts?

Does anyone know what wrong I am doing here? Or is there any better way of installing latest version of cmake in my linux box?

userName@phx5qa01c-4e23:~/build$ uname -a
Linux phx5qa01c-4e23 2.6.35-22-server #33-Ubuntu SMP Sun Sep 19 20:48:58 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux

12 Answers

The most common situation is when you want to install the latest version of cmake, but your Operating System's repositories are not updated. For example, in my case I have a laptop running Ubuntu 16.04, and when I executed the command sudo apt install cmake the installed version was 3.5.1; instead of 3.22.2 which is the current version at cmake.org.

Teo, how can I get the latest version?

Well, we can install it by following one of these methods:

Using APT Repositories
Building and Installing from source
Using binary files

A. Using APT Repositories (Recommended for normal users)

Kitware now provides an APT Repository that supports Ubuntu 16.04, 18.04, and 20.04. So we can install it easily following these steps:

A-1. Uninstall the default version provided by Ubuntu's package manager and configuration by using:

sudo apt remove --purge --auto-remove cmake

or:

sudo apt purge --auto-remove cmake

A-2. Prepare for installation

sudo apt update && \
sudo apt install -y software-properties-common lsb-release && \
sudo apt clean all

A-3. Obtain a copy of kitware's signing key.

wget -O - 2>/dev/null | gpg --dearmor - | sudo tee /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/kitware.gpg >/dev/null

A-4. Add kitware's repository to your sources list for Ubuntu Focal Fossa (20.04), Ubuntu Bionic Beaver (18.04) and Ubuntu Xenial Xerus (16.04).

sudo apt-add-repository "deb $(lsb_release -cs) main"

A-5. As an optional step, is recommended that we also install the kitware-archive-keyring package to ensure that Kitware's keyring stays up to date as they rotate their keys.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install kitware-archive-keyring
sudo rm /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/kitware.gpg

A-5.Note If running sudo apt update gets the following error:

Err:7 bionic InRelease
The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 6AF7F09730B3F0A4
Fetched 11.0 kB in 1s (7552 B/s)

Copy the public key 6AF7F09730B3F0A4 and run this command:

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 6AF7F09730B3F0A4

A-6. Finally we can update and install the cmake package.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install cmake

B. Building and Installing (Recommended for developers)

For this approach you need to install the GCC tools:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install build-essential libtool autoconf unzip wget

B-1. Uninstall the default version provided by Ubuntu's package manager as in A-1.

B-2. Go to the official CMake webpage, then download and extract the latest version. Update the version and build variables in the following command to get the desired version:

version=3.22
build=2
## don't modify from here
mkdir ~/temp
cd ~/temp
wget
tar -xzvf cmake-$version.$build.tar.gz
cd cmake-$version.$build/

B-3. Install the extracted source by running:

./bootstrap
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install

B-4. Test your new cmake version.

$ cmake --version

Results of cmake --version:

cmake version 3.22.X
CMake suite maintained and supported by Kitware ().

C. Using binary files (`cmake-gui` might not work well)

C-1. Uninstall the default version provided by Ubuntu's package manager as in A-1.

C-2. Go to the official CMake webpage, then download and install the latest .sh version in opt/cmake. Update the version and build variables in the following command to get the desired version:

version=3.22
build=2
## don't modify from here
limit=3.20
result=$(echo "$version >= $limit" | bc -l)
os=$([ "$result" == 1 ] && echo "linux" || echo "Linux")
mkdir ~/temp
cd ~/temp
wget
sudo mkdir /opt/cmake
sudo sh cmake-$version.$build-$os-x86_64.sh --prefix=/opt/cmake

C-3. Add the installed binary link to /usr/local/bin/cmake by running this:

sudo ln -s /opt/cmake/bin/cmake /usr/local/bin/cmake

C-4. Test your new cmake version as in B-4.

Note

In 3.22.X the X represents the last part of the version that we defined as build. The build may change if cmake is updated. According to the official web page the Latest Release is 3.22.2. If you want the Previous Release 3.21.4 just replace the version and build parameters like this:

version=3.21
build=4
## don't modify from here
limit=3.20
result=$(echo "$version >= $limit" | bc -l)
os=$([ "$result" == 1 ] && echo "linux" || echo "Linux")
mkdir ~/temp
cd ~/temp
wget
sudo mkdir /opt/cmake
sudo sh cmake-$version.$build-$os-x86_64.sh --prefix=/opt/cmake

Observation

For previous versions of CMake (3.19.7 <=), remember that the file name contains an upper case L in -Linux-x86_64.sh and from version 3.20 it has a lower case l in -linux-x86_64.sh

Kitware now has an APT repository that currently supports Ubuntu 16.04, 18.04 and 20.04

Install Instructions:

Remove old version of cmake
```
sudo apt purge --auto-remove cmake
```

Obtain a copy of the signing key

wget -O - 2>/dev/null | gpg --dearmor - | sudo tee /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/kitware.gpg >/dev/null

Add the repository to your sources list
a. For Ubuntu Focal Fossa (20.04)
```
sudo apt-add-repository 'deb focal main' 
```
b. For Ubuntu Bionic Beaver (18.04)
```
sudo apt-add-repository 'deb bionic main'
```
c. For Ubuntu Xenial Xerus (16.04)
```
sudo apt-add-repository 'deb xenial main'
```
Update and install
```
sudo apt update
sudo apt install cmake
```

First uninstall any cmake package previously installed. Then:

Go to and download the latest .sh installer

Install it (for example) in opt/cmake by running

sudo mkdir /opt/cmake
sudo sh <installer filename> --prefix=/opt/cmake

Add the cmake bin directory to your path:

Installed in this way, cmake-gui looks a little bit horrible, if you find a way to fix it please feel free to edit this answer.

I love the following way because you can get a recent version without much trouble.

Kitware seems to officially support a pip wheels release. So you can get latest cmake just by doing:

pip install --upgrade cmake

Here is the blog about it:

Just in case if someone need to install latest CMAKE in a docker image (like me..). In this case is 3.7.2, but you can check here as already pointed out

#install latest cmake
ADD /cmake-3.7.2-Linux-x86_64.sh
RUN mkdir /opt/cmake
RUN sh /cmake-3.7.2-Linux-x86_64.sh --prefix=/opt/cmake --skip-license
RUN ln -s /opt/cmake/bin/cmake /usr/local/bin/cmake
RUN cmake --version

Probably the server at was just very busy. You could try again or download the file using your web browser.

There is however a much simpler way:

sudo apt-get install cmake

Update: commenters point out that "Ubuntu 12.04 is only shipping v2.8.7" and "14.04 is still shipping 2.8". That is for a reason: 12.04 and 14.04 are LTS releases of Ubuntu. LTS releases are intended to remain stable for 5 years, so they receive only security and critical updates, not the latest releases of packages. Normal releases come out every 6 months, and are therefore more likely to come with a recent cmake.

You can find very recent versions of cmake through snap. For example, as of writing this answer, the latest version of cmake is 3.15.3, and snap has version 3.15.2.

sudo apt-get purge cmake
sudo snap install cmake --classic

You can also execute the following:

export fn=/tmp/cmake.sh && ls $fn && (echo "use previous $fn? Enter for yes, ctrl+d for no." && read) || (wget -O $fn 1>&2) && (cd /opt && sudo bash ${fn} && echo sudo ln -f -s /opt/cmake*/bin/cmake /usr/local/bin/cmake && cd -)

This script

fetches make 3.0.2 ** if it was already downloaded in this session, then you might reuse it if you did not finish the installation
then it ~~copies~~ makes link to the bin cmake.

For a Docker container, best run

RUN wget -qO- "" | \ tar --strip-components=1 -xz -C /usr/local

Adjust the version, if needed.

Remove old version using:

apt-get purge cmake

Download binary version of cmake archived in a tarball. You can use new version of cmake by adding its bin directory path to $PATH. An alternative solution is to extract tar.gz package and go to the directory made after extracting and run following commands:

cp -r bin /usr/
cp -r doc /usr/share/
cp -r man /usr/share/
cp -r share /usr/

The second method is the same as installation process which .deb package does!

Install the latest version of cmake from backports, where many latest versions reside. The particular backports depends on your current OS version. For example, running Debian Stretch, add the following to /etc/apt/sources.list

deb stretch-backports main

Then install from this backport, aka:

sudo apt-get -t stretch-backports install -y cmake

qwr's answer to use snap can be good but if you want something even newer, cmake makes building a DEB from source easy. The following assumes you have a recent cmake already installed. Ubuntu 18.04's apt install cmake will definitely work here.

sudo apt-get build-dep cmake
git clone
cd cmake
git tag
# find the highest tagged release value (hint, rarely at the bottom)
git co tags/<highest tagged release value>
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
cmake --build .
cpack -G DEB
# you built a single deb that has what Ubuntu provides as two debs, the binary
# deb and the additional architecture independent data files
sudo apt remove cmake-data
sudo dpkg -i cmake-<highest tagged release value>-Linux-x86_64.deb