As a haskell package, git-annex can be installed using cabal. For example: cabal update cabal install git-annex --bindir=$HOME/bin The above downloads the latest release and installs it into a ~/bin/ directory, which you can put in your PATH. But maybe you want something newer (or older). Then [[download]] the version you want, and use cabal as follows inside its source tree: cabal update cabal install --only-dependencies cabal configure cabal build cabal install --bindir=$HOME/bin