Install Confluent CLI¶

This topic describes how to install the Confluent CLI on macOS, Linux, and Windows. It also includes other installation methods you can use to install the CLI. Before you install, verify you meet all requirements.

macOS and Linux users can install the latest version of Confluent CLI using the following Homebrew command:

brew install confluentinc/tap/cli

If you are a Debian or Ubuntu user, you can install the latest version of Confluent CLI using the APT package manager:

Install curl and gpg (if you have not already installed them).
```
sudo apt install curl gnupg
```

Install the Confluent CLI APT public key:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
curl https://packages.confluent.io/confluent-cli/deb/archive.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/confluent-cli.gpg
sudo chmod go+r /etc/apt/keyrings/confluent-cli.gpg

You should see output similar to the following:

% Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                    Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100  3106  100  3106    0     0  16062      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 16010

Add the Confluent CLI repository to your APT configuration:

echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/confluent-cli.gpg] https://packages.confluent.io/confluent-cli/deb stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/confluent-cli.list >/dev/null

Update apt:
```
sudo apt update
```

Install the Confluent CLI:

sudo apt install confluent-cli

You should see output similar to:

...
The following NEW packages will be installed:
confluent-cli
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 41 not upgraded.
Need to get 19.3 MB of archives.
After this operation, 56.2 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 https://packages.confluent.io/confluent-cli/deb stable/main amd64 confluent-cli amd64 3.48.0 [19.3 MB]
...
Unpacking confluent-cli (3.48.0) ...
Setting up confluent-cli (3.48.0) ...

Confluent Platform

If you installed Confluent Platform using APT, you should already have a version of the Confluent CLI. In most cases, Confluent Platform users should use the version of Confluent CLI provided with Confluent Platform. However, you can still install the latest version of the Confluent CLI from the CLI repository by using the following steps:

Install curl and gpg (if you have not already installed them).
```
sudo apt install curl gnupg
```

Install the Confluent CLI APT public key:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
curl https://packages.confluent.io/confluent-cli/deb/archive.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/confluent-cli.gpg
sudo chmod go+r /etc/apt/keyrings/confluent-cli.gpg

You should see output similar to the following:

 % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                     Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
 100  3106  100  3106    0     0  16062      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 16010

Add the Confluent CLI repository to your APT configuration:

echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/confluent-cli.gpg] https://packages.confluent.io/confluent-cli/deb stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/confluent-cli.list >/dev/null

Update apt:
```
sudo apt update
```
Install the latest version of the Confluent CLI. A specific version must be provided; if not, APT will install the CLI provided by Confluent Platform that uses the Confluent Platform version number (which is not considered to be latest CLI version by APT).
```
sudo apt install confluent-cli=3.48.0
```
To find the current latest version, you can run the following commands: sudo apt update and sudo apt list -a confluent-cli and look for the highest version number earlier than 7.x or refer to the Confluent CLI Release Notes.

Note

Updating the CLI through APT, or installing Confluent Platform through APT will cause this version of the CLI to be replaced with the version provided by Confluent Platform.

RHEL and CentOS users can install the latest version of Confluent CLI using the YUM package manager.

Install the Confluent CLI YUM public key:

sudo rpm --import https://packages.confluent.io/confluent-cli/rpm/archive.key

Install yum-config-manager (included in the yum-utils package) if it is not already installed:
```
sudo yum install yum-utils
```

Add the Confluent CLI repository to your YUM configuration:

yum-config-manager --add-repo https://packages.confluent.io/confluent-cli/rpm/confluent-cli.repo

You should see output similar to:

Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, ovl
adding repo from: https://packages.confluent.io/confluent-cli/rpm/confluent-cli.repo
grabbing file https://packages.confluent.io/confluent-cli/rpm/confluent-cli.repo to /etc/yum.repos.d/confluent-cli.repo
repo saved to /etc/yum.repos.d/confluent-cli.repo

Clear the YUM caches:

sudo yum clean all

You should see output similar to:

Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, ovl
Cleaning repos: Confluent-CLI base endpoint extras updates
Cleaning up list of fastest mirrors

Install the Confluent CLI:

sudo yum install confluent-cli

You should see output similar to:

Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, ovl
Determining fastest mirrors
* base: centos-distro.1gservers.com
* extras: mirror.keystealth.org
* updates: mirrors.unifiedlayer.com
Confluent-CLI
base
endpoint
extras
updates
(1/6): base/7/x86_64/group_gz
(2/6): extras/7/x86_64/primary_db
(3/6): Confluent-CLI/primary_db
(4/6): endpoint/7/x86_64/primary_db
(5/6): base/7/x86_64/primary_db
(6/6): updates/7/x86_64/primary_db
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package confluent-cli.x86_64 0:3.48.0-1 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

========================================================================================================================================================================================================================
Package                                                      Arch                           Version                            Repository                                               Size
========================================================================================================================================================================================================================
Installing:
confluent-cli                                                x86_64                         3.48.0-1                           Confluent-CLI                                            19 M

Transaction Summary
========================================================================================================================================================================================================================
Install  1 Package

Total download size: 19 M
Installed size: 54 M
Is this ok [y/d/N]: y
Downloading packages:
confluent-cli-3.48.0-1.x86_64.rpm
Running transaction check
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded
Running transaction
Verifying  : confluent-cli-3.48.0-1.x86_64

Installed:
confluent-cli.x86_64 0:3.48.0-1

Complete!

Confluent Platform

If you installed Confluent Platform using YUM, you should already have a version of the Confluent CLI. In most cases, Confluent Platform users should use the version of Confluent CLI provided with Confluent Platform. However, if you want to install the latest version of the Confluent CLI from the CLI repository, you can use the following steps:

Install the Confluent CLI YUM public key:

sudo rpm --import https://packages.confluent.io/confluent-cli/rpm/archive.key

Add the Confluent CLI repository to your YUM configuration:

yum-config-manager --add-repo https://packages.confluent.io/confluent-cli/rpm/confluent-cli.repo

Uninstall the existing version of the Confluent CLI. This will also uninstall confluent-platform, but not the individual packages included with Confluent Platform:

sudo yum remove confluent-cli

You should see output similar to:

Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, ovl
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package confluent-cli.x86_64 0:7.5.3-1 will be erased
--> Processing Dependency: confluent-cli = 7.5.3 for package: confluent-platform-7.5.3-1.noarch
--> Running transaction check
---> Package confluent-platform.noarch 0:7.5.3-1 will be erased
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

=============================================================================================================================================================================================================
Package                                                        Arch                          Version                                 Repository                                Size
=============================================================================================================================================================================================================
Removing:
confluent-cli                                                  x86_64                        7.5.3-1                                 @Confluent                                208 M
Removing for dependencies:
confluent-platform                                             noarch                        7.5.3-1                                 @Confluent                                0.0

Transaction Summary
=============================================================================================================================================================================================================
Remove  1 Package (+1 Dependent package)

Installed size: 208 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading packages:
Running transaction check
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded
Running transaction
Erasing    : confluent-platform-7.5.3-1.noarch
Erasing    : confluent-cli-7.5.3-1.x86_64
Verifying  : confluent-platform-7.5.3-1.noarch
Verifying  : confluent-cli-7.5.3-1.x86_64

Removed:
confluent-cli.x86_64 0:7.5.3-1

Dependency Removed:
confluent-platform.noarch 0:7.5.3-1

Complete!

Clear the YUM caches:

sudo yum clean all

You should see output similar to:

Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, ovl
Cleaning repos: Confluent-CLI base endpoint extras updates
Cleaning up list of fastest mirrors
...

Temporarily disable the Confluent Platform repository:
```
sudo yum --disablerepo=Confluent install confluent-cli
```
This command assumes that users have added the Confluent Platform repository using the confluent.repo file provided in Install Confluent Platform using Systemd on RHEL and CentOS. If you who have modified the repository ID, you must provide the ID as the argument to --disablerepo in place of Confluent in the previous step. You can view repository IDs and names using yum repolist all.

Note

Updating the CLI through YUM, or installing Confluent Platform through YUM will cause this version of the CLI to be replaced with the version provided by Confluent Platform.

To install the Confluent CLI on Windows, complete the following steps:

Download the latest Windows ZIP file from https://github.com/confluentinc/cli/releases/latest.
Unzip the following file:
```
confluent_X.X.X_windows_amd64.zip
```
Run confluent.exe.

Other installation methods¶

This section includes other methods you can use to install the Confluent CLI.

Docker¶

To install the Confluent CLI on Docker Desktop, run the following command to pull the latest CLI version:

docker pull confluentinc/confluent-cli:latest

You can also install a specific version:

docker pull confluentinc/confluent-cli:<version>

Confluent Platform installation package¶

Confluent Platform installation packages include the Confluent CLI binaries for each of the operating system and architecture types that the Confluent CLI supports.

Confluent Community software users must download the Confluent CLI separately and configure it manually.

To use the Confluent CLI in the Confluent Platform package:

Set the Confluent Platform home environment variable:

export CONFLUENT_HOME=<The directory where Confluent is installed>

Add the location of the CLI to the PATH:
```
export PATH=$CONFLUENT_HOME/bin:$PATH
```

Install alternative version in Confluent Platform package¶

The version of the Confluent CLI used by Confluent Platform can be changed by downloading a specific Confluent CLI binary and using it to replace the current binary.

When you download and install the Confluent CLI outside of the Confluent Platform package, ensure you install a Confluent CLI version that is compatible with the version of Confluent Platform you are running. For reference, see the /platform/current/.

Download the appropriate version of the Confluent CLI.
Use the downloaded binary to replace the existing Confluent CLI binary located in subdirectories of $CONFLUENT_HOME/libexec/cli/.

For example, on macOS, which is the darwin operating system type and amd64 architecture type:
```
cp <cli binaries> $CONFLUENT_HOME/libexec/cli/darwin_amd64/
```

Tarball or ZIP installation¶

Download and install the most recently released CLI binaries for your platform:
Set the PATH environment to include the directory that you downloaded the CLI binaries in the previous step:
```
export PATH=<path-to-cli>:$PATH
```
Optionally, if you do not have enough space in the default directory that CLI stores logs and data, set the CONFLUENT_CURRENT environment variable to use a different directory:
```
export CONFLUENT_CURRENT=<path-to-confluent-local-data>
```

Verify¶

You can confirm the version and the OS type of the CLI with the following command:

confluent version

Upgrade¶

Use the confluent update command to upgrade from an earlier version of the Confluent CLI to a newer version. For the full syntax, see confluent update.

To ensure compatibility, updates using the confluent update command are disabled for the CLI packaged with Confluent Platform. If you need to upgrade to a later version of the CLI, see Install alternative version in Confluent Platform package.

Confluent Platform properties files¶

The following list includes the default Confluent Platform services configuration properties files, where $CONFLUENT_HOME is the directory where you installed Confluent Platform. You reference or modify the appropriate file when you work with a Confluent Platform service.

Connect: $CONFLUENT_HOME/etc/schema-registry/connect-avro-distributed.properties
Control Center: $CONFLUENT_HOME/etc/confluent-control-center/control-center-dev.properties
Kafka: $CONFLUENT_HOME/etc/kafka/server.properties
REST Proxy: $CONFLUENT_HOME/etc/kafka-rest/kafka-rest.properties
ksqlDB: $CONFLUENT_HOME/etc/ksqldb/ksql-server.properties
Schema Registry: $CONFLUENT_HOME/etc/schema-registry/schema-registry.properties
ZooKeeper: $CONFLUENT_HOME/etc/kafka/zookeeper.properties