The tarball and the AppImage
Two downloads, the same build, x86_64 only. The tarball is the default: extract it anywhere and run ./relic_app. It depends on nothing at all. The AppImage is one file: make it executable and run it. Take the AppImage if you want Relic to handle its own updates, because a single file is something it can swap in place.
The AppImage mounts itself with FUSE. It uses fuse3, which current distributions already ship, so you do not need the older libfuse2 that other AppImages ask for. It runs on a stock Ubuntu 24.04 that has no libfuse2 on it at all. On an older machine with no usable FUSE, run it with --appimage-extract-and-run, or take the tarball.
Nothing installs system-wide and there is no package manager step. The first time it runs, Relic writes its own launcher entry and icon and registers itself for relic:// links, so it turns up in your launcher like anything else. The install page has the downloads, and relic.space/docs/linux.md goes into more detail than this page does.
X11 and Wayland
Relic is built for X11, and it tells you when it cannot do something instead of half working in silence. On X11 you get everything: the shortcut that summons the window from any app, and pasting the item you pick back into the app you were using.
On Wayland the compositor does not hand any app a global shortcut, and does not let one press keys for you. That is by design and there is no permission to grant. Relic still runs, still captures what you copy, and still syncs. The shortcut reports itself as unavailable rather than failing quietly, and there is no paste back into the app you came from. The first time Relic wants to paste and cannot, it says so once:
So log out and pick the Ubuntu on Xorg session at the login screen, or whatever your desktop calls its X11 option, and Relic behaves like it does everywhere else. To see which one you are in:
The tray
Stock GNOME has not shown tray icons for years. Relic asks your desktop whether anything is listening before it tells you where to find it, so on plain GNOME there is no icon and the settings row says as much: This desktop shows no tray, so Relic already runs purely from the hotkey. Install the AppIndicator extension and the icon appears; Relic notices on its own.
With no tray, the shortcut is the way in. Press Ctrl + Shift + Q from any app. Relic can also start when you log in, quietly, without opening a window.
Shortcuts and the keys
The chords are the same as everywhere else, and Relic registers them itself rather than leaving it to a library. A few Linux details:
- Another app can already hold a chord. Some desktops give Ctrl + Alt + Dto show the desktop, for example. Relic does not fight for it. The shortcut's row in Settings turns red and tells you, and you pick a different one.
- If you record a shortcut that uses the meta key, Relic writes it as Super, which is what Linux calls it.
- When Relic pastes into a terminal it sends Ctrl+Shift+V, because that is what terminals paste with.
- Settings › General › Open history at the cursor is a Windows and Mac setting. Linux has no way to find your text cursor yet, so the row is not there.
Every shortcut and how to change one is on the shortcuts page and changing a shortcut.
Updates
The AppImage updates itself. Relic tells you when a new version is out, downloads it, checks it is the file we published and swaps the file in place. A tarball cannot do that safely, so on a tarball the same notice points you at the download page and you replace the folder yourself. Either way you can check in Settings›About. Updating Relic has the whole story.
Where your files are
Your vault, its search index and the images and files Relic has downloaded live in $XDG_DATA_HOME/relic, which on most systems is ~/.local/share/relic. A vault is a database and a pile of files that can run to gigabytes, so it lives with your data and never in ~/.config. The button that opens the folder is in Settings›Vault and storage.