Installing PowerShell on Alpine Linux

All packages are available on our GitHub releases page. After the package is installed, run pwsh from a terminal. Run pwsh-preview if you installed a preview release. Before installing, check the list of Supported versions below.

Installation steps

Installation on Alpine is based on downloading tar.gz package from the releases page. The URL to the package depends on the version of PowerShell you want to install.

• PowerShell 7.4.2 - https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/releases/download/v7.4.2/powershell-7.4.2-linux-musl-x64.tar.gz
• PowerShell 7.2.19 - https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/releases/download/v7.2.19/powershell-7.2.19-linux-alpine-x64.tar.gz
• PowerShell 7.5-preview.2 - https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/releases/download/v7.5.0-preview.2/powershell-7.5.0-preview.2-linux-musl-x64.tar.gz

Then, in the terminal, execute the following shell commands to install PowerShell 7.4:

# install the requirements
sudo apk add --no-cache \
    ca-certificates \
    less \
    ncurses-terminfo-base \
    krb5-libs \
    libgcc \
    libintl \
    libssl1.1 \
    libstdc++ \
    tzdata \
    userspace-rcu \
    zlib \
    icu-libs \
    curl

sudo apk -X https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/main add --no-cache \
    lttng-ust

# Download the powershell '.tar.gz' archive
curl -L https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/releases/download/v7.4.2/powershell-7.4.2-linux-musl-x64.tar.gz -o /tmp/powershell.tar.gz

# Create the target folder where powershell will be placed
sudo mkdir -p /opt/microsoft/powershell/7

# Expand powershell to the target folder
sudo tar zxf /tmp/powershell.tar.gz -C /opt/microsoft/powershell/7

# Set execute permissions
sudo chmod +x /opt/microsoft/powershell/7/pwsh

# Create the symbolic link that points to pwsh
sudo ln -s /opt/microsoft/powershell/7/pwsh /usr/bin/pwsh

# Start PowerShell
pwsh

Uninstall PowerShell

sudo rm -rf /usr/bin/pwsh /opt/microsoft/powershell

PowerShell paths

• $PSHOME is /opt/microsoft/powershell/7/
• The profiles scripts are stored in the following locations:
  • AllUsersAllHosts - $PSHOME/profile.ps1
  • AllUsersCurrentHost - $PSHOME/Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1
  • CurrentUserAllHosts - ~/.config/powershell/profile.ps1
  • CurrentUserCurrentHost - ~/.config/powershell/Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1
• Modules are stored in the following locations:
  • User modules - ~/.local/share/powershell/Modules
  • Shared modules - /usr/local/share/powershell/Modules
  • Default modules - $PSHOME/Modules
• PSReadLine history is recorded in ~/.local/share/powershell/PSReadLine/ConsoleHost_history.txt

The profiles respect PowerShell's per-host configuration, so the default host-specific profiles exists at Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 in the same locations.

PowerShell respects the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.

Supported versions

Microsoft supports PowerShell until PowerShell reaches end-of-support or the version of Alpine reaches end-of-life.

Alpine 3.16 - OS support ends on 2024-05-23

• Docker images containing PowerShell 7.2, PowerShell 7.4, and PowerShell 7.5-preview for x64 are available from the Microsoft Artifact Registry

Alpine 3.17 - OS support ends on 2024-11-22

• Docker images containing PowerShell 7.2, PowerShell 7.4, and PowerShell 7.5-preview for x64 are available from the Microsoft Artifact Registry

Docker images of PowerShell are not available for Alpine 3.18 and 3.19 at this time.

Preview versions of PowerShell are provided for testing and feedback only.

Installation support

Microsoft supports the installation methods in this document. There may be other methods of installation available from other third-party sources. While those tools and methods may work, Microsoft can't support those methods.