Install Microsoft Edit on Ubuntu 24.04

When working on Linux, developers often need a lightweight text editor that runs directly in the terminal. While many traditional editors exist, Microsoft Edit provides a modern, efficient option for editing files from the command line. This tutorial explains how to install Microsoft Edit on Ubuntu 24.04.

Install Microsoft Edit

First, grab the most recent release number from GitHub and save it into a variable:

EDIT_VERSION=$(curl -s "https://api.github.com/repos/microsoft/edit/releases/latest" | grep -Po '"tag_name": "v\K[0-9.]+')

Next, download the archive:

wget -qO edit.tar.zst https://github.com/microsoft/edit/releases/latest/download/edit-$EDIT_VERSION-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.zst

Unpack the archive and place the executable into /usr/local/bin:

sudo tar xf edit.tar.zst -C /usr/local/bin edit

We can check the Microsoft Edit version as follows:

edit --version

Remove no longer needed archive:

rm -rf edit.tar.zst

Testing Microsoft Edit

You can create a new file or modify an existing one by running the edit command followed by the filename:

edit test.txt

Run the command with superuser privileges if you don't have sufficient permissions:

sudo edit /var/log/dpkg.log

Uninstall Microsoft Edit

If you decide you no longer need Microsoft Edit, simply delete the binary:

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/edit