diff --git a/update-on-ubuntu b/update-on-ubuntu
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..cdce90190
--- /dev/null
+++ b/update-on-ubuntu
@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+# vim:fileencoding=utf-8
+# License: GPL v3 Copyright: 2017, Kovid Goyal <kovid at kovidgoyal.net>
+
+import os
+import shlex
+import shutil
+import subprocess
+import sys
+import tempfile
+
+if False:
+    tarball = sys.argv[-1]
+    dest = os.path.expanduser('~/.local/kitty.app')
+    shutil.rmtree(dest, ignore_errors=True)
+    os.makedirs(dest)
+    os.chdir(dest)
+    dest = os.path.expanduser('~/.local/bin/kitty')
+    try:
+        os.remove(dest)
+    except EnvironmentError:
+        pass
+    try:
+        os.makedirs(os.path.dirname(dest))
+    except EnvironmentError:
+        pass
+    subprocess.check_call(['tar', 'xJf', tarball])
+    os.symlink(os.path.abspath('bin/kitty'), dest)
+    print('kitty installed to ~/.local/kitty.app')
+
+
+# EOF_REMOTE
+
+HOST = 'ubuntu'
+
+base = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
+if True:
+    sys.path.insert(0, base)
+    from kitty.constants import str_version
+
+tarball = f'kitty-{str_version}-x86_64.txz'
+
+
+def run(what):
+    ret = subprocess.run(shlex.split(what))
+    if ret.returncode != 0:
+        raise SystemExit(ret.returncode)
+
+
+script = open(__file__, 'rb').read().decode('utf-8')
+script = script[:script.find('# EOF_REMOTE')].replace('if False:', 'if True:', 1)
+os.chdir(os.path.expanduser('~/work/build-kitty'))
+with tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile(prefix='install-tarball-', suffix='.py') as f:
+    run('./linux 64 kitty')
+    f.write(script.encode('utf-8'))
+    f.flush()
+    run(f'scp build/linux/64/sw/dist/{tarball} {f.name} {HOST}:/tmp')
+    run(f'ssh {HOST} python /tmp/{os.path.basename(f.name)} /tmp/{tarball}')