neovim-deb

Unofficial .deb packages for Neovim, built from the official prebuilt release tarballs published on the neovim/neovim releases page.

This repo does not compile Neovim from source. It downloads the upstream nvim-linux-x86_64.tar.gz / nvim-linux-arm64.tar.gz release assets, repackages their contents as /usr/... inside a Debian package, auto-detects the correct runtime dependencies (glibc, libicu, etc.) via ldd, and publishes the result as a GitHub Release — nothing more.

This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Neovim project.

Building the packages locally requires docker, curl, and bash. Every Debian-specific step (dependency detection, dpkg-deb --build) runs inside a debian:13 container, so the build scripts work from macOS or any Linux host without local Debian packaging tools installed.

Install

curl -LO https://github.com/codexscribo/neovim-deb/releases/latest/download/neovim_<version>_amd64.deb
curl -LO https://github.com/codexscribo/neovim-deb/releases/latest/download/neovim-runtime_<version>_all.deb
sudo apt install ./neovim_<version>_amd64.deb ./neovim-runtime_<version>_all.deb

Replace amd64 with arm64 on ARM systems, and <version> with the full version string from the release you downloaded (e.g. 0.12.4-1).

Both files are required together. Like Debian/Ubuntu's own packaging, this repo splits Neovim into neovim (the arch-specific binary and libraries) and neovim-runtime (the arch-independent runtime/data files, e.g. syntax files, the desktop entry, icons); neovim depends on an exact matching version of neovim-runtime. apt install with both .deb paths on the command line resolves that dependency locally — installing only one file (e.g. with a plain dpkg -i) will fail with an unmet dependency.

Both packages are named the same as Debian/Ubuntu's own neovim / neovim-runtime packages, so installing them upgrades or supersedes whatever neovim/neovim-runtime packages (if any) are already installed. No special flags are needed.

Supported architectures

• amd64
• arm64

Versioning

Package versions follow Debian's <upstream_version>-<package_revision> convention, e.g. 0.12.4-1. <upstream_version> is the upstream Neovim version; <package_revision> identifies how many times this repackaging has been published for that same upstream version. A packaging-only fix (say, a dependency-detection bug) can be re-released as 0.12.4-2 without waiting for a new upstream Neovim release. Each <version>-<revision> combination is published as its own GitHub Release, tagged e.g. v0.12.4-2, so every past revision stays downloadable — grabbing the latest release always gets you the newest revision of the newest version.

How it works

1. scripts/build-deb.sh <version> <arch> [package_revision] downloads the matching upstream release tarball, lays its bin/ and lib/ directories out under pkgroot/usr/, and copies in usr/share/doc/neovim/{copyright,changelog.Debian.gz} — the static debian/copyright plus debian/changelog-neovim.template rendered with sed and gzipped. It renders debian/control-neovim.template with sed for the package version, architecture, and Installed-Size, leaving a __DEPENDS__ placeholder unresolved. It then runs a debian:13 container (matching the host's native platform — no QEMU needed for this step) to auto-detect runtime dependencies with ldd + dpkg -S against Debian's own package database, hard-failing the build if ldd reports any unresolved (not found) library, fills in __DEPENDS__ with neovim-runtime (= <same version>) plus the detected packages, and builds the .deb with dpkg-deb inside that same container. This package is built once per architecture.
2. scripts/build-runtime-deb.sh <version> [package_revision] downloads the same upstream release tarball (always the x86_64 one — share/ is verified byte-identical across architectures), lays its share/ directory out under pkgroot/usr/, compresses the man page, and copies in usr/share/doc/neovim-runtime/{copyright,changelog.Debian.gz} the same way as build-deb.sh, rendering debian/control-neovim-runtime.template and debian/changelog-neovim-runtime.template fully on the host (no dependency detection needed here, so no __DEPENDS__ placeholder exists in this template). It then runs dpkg-deb --build inside a debian:13 container pinned to the host's native platform (detected via uname -m) purely for build reproducibility — nothing under share/ is an ELF binary, so no dependency detection happens for this package. Its Replaces/Breaks on neovim (<< <same version>) let it reclaim runtime files from any older bundled neovim package (distro stock or this repo's own pre-split releases) during an upgrade. This package is built once — it isn't architecture-specific.
3. scripts/test-deb.sh <neovim-deb> <neovim-runtime-deb> <version> installs the distro's own stock neovim/neovim-runtime packages first, then installs both built packages together to exercise the upgrade path, checks that nvim runs and reports the right version, confirms the man page and desktop file are owned by neovim-runtime and both packages' dpkg metadata are correct, then removes neovim alone (confirming neovim-runtime is untouched, matching real dpkg behavior) before removing neovim-runtime and confirming full cleanup.
4. .github/workflows/release.yml runs on a daily schedule (and can be triggered manually). It resolves the latest upstream Neovim release (or a specific version passed to workflow_dispatch), and auto-picks the next package revision for that version (or uses one passed explicitly via workflow_dispatch). The scheduled run skips entirely if a release for the resolved version already exists — its job is just to catch new upstream releases — but a manual workflow_dispatch run always proceeds, which is how you publish a packaging-only fix under a bumped revision. It then builds neovim .debs for both architectures plus a single neovim-runtime .deb, tests each neovim/neovim-runtime pair across Ubuntu 22.04/24.04/26.04 and Debian 12/13 — including upgrading from each distro's stock neovim/neovim-runtime packages — and only publishes a GitHub Release (as three assets: two neovim .debs and one neovim-runtime .deb) if every install/smoke-test combination passes.

Caveats

• This is a repackaging of upstream binaries, not an independently built or audited package. Use at your own risk.
• Requires glibc >= 2.34, matching upstream's build requirement — Ubuntu 22.04+ and Debian 12+. Older releases such as Debian 11 (glibc 2.31) can't run the upstream binary at all; this is a limitation of the official Neovim release itself, not something this repackaging can work around.
• Once installed, dpkg/apt will consider neovim and neovim-runtime "installed" at this package's version. A subsequent apt upgrade will not automatically downgrade you back to your distro's own packages — you'd need to reinstall them explicitly (e.g. sudo apt install --reinstall neovim neovim-runtime) if you ever want to revert.
• No APT repository is provided; packages are distributed only as GitHub Release assets. Because neovim depends on an exact matching version of neovim-runtime and there's no repository for apt/dpkg to resolve that dependency automatically, you must download both .deb files and install them together (see Install) — installing just one fails with an unmet dependency.

License

MIT — applies to the packaging scripts and CI in this repo only, not to Neovim itself (see neovim/neovim for its license).