Get bwa on macOS and Linux Now!
Burrow-Wheeler Aligner for short-read alignment (see minimap2 for long-read alignment)
Get bwa with one command
Pick your system, reveal the step-by-step guide, copy the command, paste it into your terminal and press Enter. This command comes from the project's public source.
Not available for Windows yet.
bwa doesn't publish an install command for Windows anywhere we can verify, so there's nothing for us to show you. We won't invent one. It does document one for macOS and Linux — switch to that tab.
Pastes into PowerShell and installs bwa on your Windows machine in one step. Runs as your normal user account, and needs no administrator rights.
Not available for macOS yet.
bwa doesn't publish an install command for macOS or Linux anywhere we can verify, so there's nothing for us to show you. We won't invent one.
Installs bwa on your macOS or Linux machine and links it into your PATH — after this,
bwa just works from any directory. Runs as your normal user account, and needs no administrator rights.
How to set up bwa, step by step
Open Terminal. On a Mac it's in Applications ▸ Utilities, or press Cmd+Space and type Terminal. On Linux, press Ctrl+Alt+T. Paste the command and press Enter.
Run bwa --help to see the available commands, and
bwa --version to confirm the install worked. If your shell complains about
permissions, that project usually documents a corrected command on its own site.
This asks Homebrew to fetch bwa and link it into /opt/homebrew/bin (Apple Silicon) or /usr/local/bin (Intel), so you can run it by name.
bwa at a glance
- Installs with a single
command —
Homebrew. - Installs on macOS / Linux.
- Free and open source, with no paid tier and no account needed.
- 1.8k stars — an actively used project.
bwa doesn't publish a feature list we can quote, so this is what we verified ourselves.
About bwa
Burrow-Wheeler Aligner for short-read alignment (see minimap2 for long-read alignment)
| Category | Developer tool |
|---|---|
| Install method | Homebrew |
| Windows | no install command published |
| macOS / Linux | documented install command available |
| Price | Free and open source |
| Command verified | From project source |
| Popularity | 1.8k stars on the project's public repository |
On mobile
bwa is a command-line tool, so there is no phone app for it — a phone has no shell to run it in. You'll need a desktop, or a remote shell into a machine that has one.
bwa is developed by its own authors. This page is an independent reference; we are not affiliated with or sponsored by the project. The command shown here was reproduced from the project's public documentation — always check the project's own documentation before running anything.