Installing mp3rgain

Every supported channel for the CLI (mp3rgain) and the desktop GUI (mp3rgui), with the matching uninstall command and a post-install verification step. Both ship x86_64 and ARM64 builds on every platform.

CLI or GUI?

They share the same processing pipeline, so the output is identical — pick by workflow:

mp3rgain (CLI) — scripting, cron jobs, containers, CI, large library sweeps with -R. This is the mp3gain drop-in.
mp3rgui (GUI) — drag-and-drop, one-off albums, visual inspection of stored ReplayGain tags before committing a change.

Installing both is fine; they are separate packages on every registry and do not conflict.

CLI — mp3rgain

Platform	Channel	Install	Uninstall
macOS	Homebrew	`brew install M-Igashi/tap/mp3rgain`	`brew uninstall mp3rgain`
macOS	MacPorts	`sudo port install mp3rgain`	`sudo port uninstall mp3rgain`
Windows	winget	`winget install M-Igashi.mp3rgain`	`winget uninstall M-Igashi.mp3rgain`
Arch Linux	AUR	`yay -S mp3rgain-bin`	`sudo pacman -Rns mp3rgain-bin`
Ubuntu 25.10+	PPA	`sudo add-apt-repository ppa:m-igashi/mp3rgain` `sudo apt install mp3rgain`	`sudo apt remove mp3rgain`
Debian	.deb	`sudo apt install ./mp3rgain_*_amd64.deb`	`sudo apt remove mp3rgain`
NixOS	Nix	`nix profile install github:M-Igashi/mp3rgain`	`nix profile remove mp3rgain`
Any	Docker	`docker pull ghcr.io/m-igashi/mp3rgain:latest`	`docker rmi ghcr.io/m-igashi/mp3rgain`
Any	Cargo	`cargo install mp3rgain`	`cargo uninstall mp3rgain`

Pre-built binaries for platforms without a package (including macOS .dmg and Debian .deb for ARM64) are attached to every GitHub release.

GUI — mp3rgui

Platform	Channel	Install	Uninstall
macOS	Homebrew Cask	`brew install --cask M-Igashi/tap/mp3rgui`	`brew uninstall --cask mp3rgui`
Windows	winget	`winget install M-Igashi.mp3rgui`	`winget uninstall M-Igashi.mp3rgui`
Arch Linux	AUR	`yay -S mp3rgui`	`sudo pacman -Rns mp3rgui`
Ubuntu 25.10+	PPA	`sudo add-apt-repository ppa:m-igashi/mp3rgui` `sudo apt install mp3rgui`	`sudo apt remove mp3rgui`
Debian / Ubuntu	.deb	`sudo apt install ./mp3rgui_*_amd64.deb`	`sudo apt remove mp3rgui`

The Linux GUI packages require GTK 3 and a reasonably current distribution (Ubuntu 24.04+ / Debian trixie+).

Verify the install

Confirm the binary runs and reports the version you expect before pointing it at a library:

mp3rgain -v
# mp3rgain version 3.1.0

mp3rgain song.mp3        # read-only: prints file info, changes nothing

Running mp3rgain with a file and no flags never writes — it is the safest way to check that decoding works on your files. Add -n to preview any real operation.

Release artifact checksums

Every release asset has a matching .sha256 file. To verify a manual download:

curl -sLO https://github.com/M-Igashi/mp3rgain/releases/download/v3.1.0/mp3rgain-v3.1.0-windows-x86_64.zip
curl -sL  https://github.com/M-Igashi/mp3rgain/releases/download/v3.1.0/mp3rgain-v3.1.0-windows-x86_64.zip.sha256
sha256sum mp3rgain-v3.1.0-windows-x86_64.zip   # compare the two

Docker

Multi-arch images (linux/amd64, linux/arm64) are published to GHCR. The image is FROM scratch around a static musl binary — roughly 2 MB, no shell, no runtime dependencies. The binary is the entrypoint, so every CLI flag works unchanged:

docker run --rm \
  --user "$(id -u):$(id -g)" \
  -v /path/to/music:/music \
  ghcr.io/m-igashi/mp3rgain:latest -r -R /music

Passing --user keeps written files owned by you rather than root. Available tags: latest, v3.1.0, and v3 (floating major).

Troubleshooting

Windows Defender flags mp3rgui.exe

Defender's cloud/ML heuristics occasionally flag the GUI binary. This is a false positive: the binaries are built in public GitHub Actions runners from the tagged source, and the build logs are open. If you hit it, the release assets can be checked against VirusTotal or reported to Microsoft as a false detection. Details are in the project README.

"-r and -a require the replaygain feature"

Only affects cargo install builds where default features were disabled. Reinstall with the feature enabled:

cargo install mp3rgain --features replaygain

Every pre-built package (Homebrew, winget, AUR, PPA, Docker, …) already includes it.

Ubuntu LTS: "package has no installation candidate"

The PPA targets Ubuntu 25.10 (questing) and newer, because mp3rgain's dependencies require Rust 1.85 while Ubuntu 24.04 LTS ships Rust 1.75. On an LTS release, use the .deb from GitHub Releases, the Docker image, or cargo install.

CLI Reference →Every flag, exit code and output format vs mp3gain & aacgain →How it differs from the classic tools FAQ →Lossless, undo, tags, Docker