Install · juist

juist is installed as a package of your system, on every device that will be in a network. You build the package from the source with one command.

What it is

juist runs on Linux and FreeBSD. On Debian and Ubuntu it is a .deb, on Fedora an RPM, and on FreeBSD a pkg package. There are no released packages yet, so you build the package from the source and then install it.

You need Go 1.26 to build it. make then fetches and uses go1.26.8 itself, so that a commit builds to the same bytes on any machine.

Installing on this device

1on every device

Get the source:

git clone https://github.com/nning/juist
cd juist

2on a Debian, Ubuntu or Fedora device

Build the package and install it:

make install

This builds the .deb on Debian and Ubuntu, or the RPM on Fedora, and installs it with sudo.

3on a FreeBSD device

As root, build the package and install it with pkg, then start the daemon:

gmake install
sysrc juistd_enable=YES && service juistd start

On Linux the package starts the daemon by itself; on FreeBSD you start it once, as here.

Running make install again later installs the new build over the old one, and the device keeps its state.

Building the package for another machine

To install juist on a machine that should not build it, build only the package and copy it there:

System	Build	Install on the other machine
Debian, Ubuntu	`make deb`	`sudo apt install ./juist_*.deb`
Fedora	`make rpm`	`sudo dnf install ./juist-*.rpm`
FreeBSD	`make pkg-freebsd`	`pkg add ./juist-*.pkg`

The packages land in build/deb, build/rpm/RPMS and build/freebsd. make deb DEB_ARCH=arm64 builds the .deb for another processor; armhf and i386 work the same way.

What the package brings

juist, the command, and juistd, the daemon. See How juist works for which does what.
On Linux, the service juistd, which starts right away and waits, outside any network, until you create one or join one. It runs as its own user, juist, with CAP_NET_ADMIN only.
Firewall profiles for ufw and firewalld: juist, juist-relay, juist-invite and juist-ingress. Where ufw or firewalld runs, the package also lets in traffic on the device juist0, which the network needs to sync its log.
A polkit rule that lets juistd set the network’s DNS through systemd-resolved.
Shell completion for bash, zsh and fish, and the man pages juist(1) and juistd(8).

To check that the daemon runs, ask it:

nas

$ juist status
nas · no network
hint: juist join CODE, or juist create

Next, create your first network.

Uninstalling

If the device is in a network, take it out first, so that the network does not keep listing it. An admin runs juist remove nas on their own device. Then remove the package:

sudo apt remove juist      # Debian, Ubuntu
sudo dnf remove juist      # Fedora
pkg delete juist           # FreeBSD, as root

Removing it stops every juistd and undoes what juist set up on the host. On Linux that is the firewall rule for juist0, an ingress, and what juist exit serve changed.

Good to know

On Linux, the package leaves the device’s keys and log in /var/lib/juist, and the system users juist, juist-ingress and juist-serve. On Debian and Ubuntu, sudo apt purge juist removes /var/lib/juist only when it is empty, and otherwise says so: juist: kept /var/lib/juist, which still holds this device's keys and log.
On FreeBSD, the removal prints one line starting with juist: kept that lists what stays.
Your admin keys in ~/.config/juist are not part of the package. Removing it does not touch them.
To leave a network but keep juist installed, run juist reset instead. See removing a device.

If something goes wrong

make install says make install knows apt (Debian, Ubuntu), dnf (Fedora) and pkg (FreeBSD); use make deb, rpm or pkg-freebsd: this system has none of the three. Build the package for one of them and install it there.
juist status says juistd not running: start it with sudo systemctl enable --now juistd, or on FreeBSD with service juistd start.
journalctl -u juistd shows the daemon’s log on Linux.