Install sem Semantic Versioning Tool on Ubuntu 26.04

The sem is a command-line tool built for semantic versioning workflows and repository-level change analysis. Instead of relying only on traditional line-based diffs, it operates at the entity level - tracking functions, methods, and structural elements across code revisions. This makes it easier to understand how a codebase evolves, especially in projects with frequent refactoring. This tutorial explains how to install sem semantic versioning tool on Ubuntu 26.04.

Prepare environment

Make sure Git is installed on the system. Refer to a post on how to install it.

Install sem

Download the latest release archive from the official repository:

curl -sSLo sem.tar.gz https://github.com/Ataraxy-Labs/sem/releases/latest/download/sem-linux-x86_64.tar.gz

Extract the binary and place into a system-wide executable directory:

sudo tar xf sem.tar.gz -C /usr/local/bin sem

To confirm that the installation was successful, check sem version:

sem --version

Remove the downloaded archive:

rm -rf sem.tar.gz

Testing sem

For testing purpose, clone the repository and go its directory:

git clone https://github.com/Ataraxy-Labs/sem.git && cd sem

A diff operation can then be performed on a specific commit to inspect changes:

sem diff --commit 8397e27

Example output:

┌─ crates/sem-cli/src/commands/diff.rs ───────────────
│
│  ∆ function   run_diff_pipeline         [modified]
│
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Summary: 1 modified across 1 file

Uninstall sem

If the sem tool is no longer needed, the installed binary can be deleted from the system directory:

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