Install

Rekkefly is one program with no dependencies to install. Download the file for your computer from the latest release:

Not sure which Mac you have? Choose Apple menu → About This Mac: a “Chip” line (Apple M1, M2, …) means Apple silicon; a “Processor” line (Intel) means Intel.

Every package includes the Bogong moth example, the example configs and the example receivers in Python.

Mac

1. Open the DMG and drag Rekkefly onto the Applications shortcut.
2. Eject the disk image and open Rekkefly from Applications.
3. Allow camera access when macOS asks.

If macOS says Rekkefly “cannot be opened”. Rekkefly is free software without a paid Apple signature, so the first launch can be blocked. If you trust the download, run once in Terminal:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Rekkefly.app"

This clears the download flag on Rekkefly only; it does not turn off Gatekeeper. Alternatively, try to open Rekkefly once, then choose System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway (Apple’s explanation).

If the camera stays black, check System Settings → Privacy & Security → Camera and turn Rekkefly on.

From a terminal, the program inside the app is /Applications/Rekkefly.app/Contents/MacOS/rekkefly. Every command in this book works with that path in place of rekkefly. To type just rekkefly, add a link once:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/bin
sudo ln -sf /Applications/Rekkefly.app/Contents/MacOS/rekkefly /usr/local/bin/rekkefly

Windows

Run Rekkefly-<version>-windows-x64-setup.exe. It installs for your user account under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Rekkefly, with Start-menu and desktop shortcuts and a Rekkefly - start all rigs shortcut. The build is not code-signed, so SmartScreen may ask you to confirm: choose More info → Run anyway.

You can drag a video file onto the Rekkefly shortcut to open it. Uninstall from Settings → Apps; your configs in %APPDATA%\Rekkefly\configs are kept.

Ubuntu and other Linux

sudo apt install ./rekkefly_<version>_amd64.deb

This puts rekkefly on your PATH and adds Rekkefly to the app menu, with Start all rigs and Open the Bogong moth example actions (right-click the icon). Builds target Ubuntu 22.04 and newer on x86-64; other distributions can use the tarball.

To use a camera, your user must be in the video group:

sudo usermod -aG video $USER     # then log out and back in

Portable folders

The ZIP files and the Linux tarball contain rekkefly (or rekkefly.exe), configs/, samples/, examples/ and launchers you can double-click:

Launchers are .command files on a Mac, .cmd on Windows and .sh on Linux. A portable folder reads and saves its configs in its own configs/ folder, so you can keep several independent copies, or carry one on a USB stick.

Check the download

Each release has a SHA256SUMS.txt. To check a file:

shasum -a 256 Rekkefly-<version>-macos-arm64.dmg          # Mac
sha256sum rekkefly_<version>_amd64.deb                    # Linux
certutil -hashfile Rekkefly-<version>-windows-x64-setup.exe SHA256   # Windows

The result must match the line for that file in SHA256SUMS.txt.

Upgrading

Install the new version over the old one. Configs, backgrounds and recordings are kept. Rekkefly 0.6 replaced Rekke 0.5: on first launch it copies your Rekke settings, markers and backgrounds into the Rekkefly folders. On Windows the two install side by side; remove Rekke in Settings → Apps. On Ubuntu the rekkefly package replaces rekke.

Where your settings live is listed in Files and folders.

Optional: FFmpeg

AVI files play without any extra software. To open MP4, MOV, M4V and other formats, or network streams, install FFmpeg and make sure ffmpeg is on your PATH, or set REKKEFLY_FFMPEG to its full path.

Build it yourself

See Building from source.