Skip to content

Installation

curl -sL https://pitop.hongjunwu.com/install.sh | sh

The install script auto-detects your Pi model and CPU architecture, downloads the correct binary from GitHub Releases, and installs it to /usr/local/bin.

To pin a specific version:

curl -sL https://pitop.hongjunwu.com/install.sh | PITOP_VERSION=v0.1.0 sh

Supported architectures

The installer supports aarch64 (64-bit ARM), armv7l (32-bit ARM), and x86_64. ARMv6 (original Pi Zero, Pi 1) is not supported.

cargo install

If you have the Rust toolchain installed:

cargo install --git https://github.com/wu-hongjun/pitop

This builds pitop from source and installs the binary to ~/.cargo/bin/.

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/wu-hongjun/pitop.git
cd pitop
cargo build --release
sudo cp target/release/pitop /usr/local/bin/

Prerequisites

  • Rust 1.70+ -- install via rustup:

    curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
source ~/.cargo/env

  • A C linker -- typically provided by build-essential on Debian/Raspberry Pi OS:

    sudo apt install build-essential

Cross-compile

You can build pitop on a faster machine and copy the binary to your Pi.

rustup target add aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu
cargo build --release --target aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu
scp target/aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu/release/pitop pi@raspberrypi:~/

rustup target add armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabihf
cargo build --release --target armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabihf
scp target/armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabihf/release/pitop pi@raspberrypi:~/

Cross-compilation linker

You may need to install a cross-compilation linker. On Ubuntu/Debian:

# For aarch64
sudo apt install gcc-aarch64-linux-gnu

# For armv7
sudo apt install gcc-arm-linux-gnueabihf

Then configure Cargo to use it by adding to ~/.cargo/config.toml:

[target.aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu]
linker = "aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc"

[target.armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabihf]
linker = "arm-linux-gnueabihf-gcc"

Download binary

Download a prebuilt tarball from GitHub Releases:

tar xzf pitop-v*.tar.gz
sudo mv pitop /usr/local/bin/

Requirements

  • Raspberry Pi (or any Linux system for basic features)
  • Terminal with 256-color support (most modern terminals)
  • vcgencmd for throttle/voltage/PMIC data (included in Raspberry Pi OS)

vcgencmd on non-Pi systems

If vcgencmd is not available (e.g., on a generic Linux system or a non-standard Pi OS), pitop still runs but Pi-specific features like power monitoring and throttle detection will be unavailable.

Verify installation

pitop --version

If the command prints a version number, pitop is installed and ready to use.