Install pandoc with Homebrew, chocolatey, apt, MacPorts, Nix, dnf, pacman, scoop, winget, zypper

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• pandoc

Project history

Pandoc was created by John MacFarlane and has an official copyright history beginning in 2006. It developed from a markup converter into both a comprehensive command-line application and a reusable Haskell library for parsing, transforming, and writing document formats.

Over time the project accumulated native readers and writers, a JSON abstract-syntax-tree filter protocol, Lua filters, templates, citation processing, defaults files, and dedicated APIs. The official release history records continuing changes to formats and the library interface.

Adoption history

Pandoc is distributed through numerous operating-system and language package ecosystems, including Homebrew, Debian-family distributions, Fedora-family distributions, Arch, Nix, MacPorts, Chocolatey, Scoop, and WinGet. That breadth has made it a standard dependency for documentation generators, publishing frontends, editor integrations, and reproducible-writing pipelines.

Its reader, writer, filter, template, citation, and defaults-file interfaces support a large extension ecosystem. Tools such as pandoc-crossref, pandoc-plot, Pandocomatic, and Pandemics build specialized workflows around the core converter.

How it is used

Typical use converts an input document by selecting or inferring a reader and choosing a writer with `--to`; templates, metadata, filters, citations, and resource paths refine the result.

Reusable YAML or JSON defaults files can capture complete command-line configurations. Pandoc searches first in the working directory and then in the `defaults` subdirectory of its user data directory.

Why package nerds care

Pandoc is a canonical package-nerd utility because it provides one programmable conversion layer across many markup and document formats. Installing one command exposes a broad matrix of readers and writers rather than a collection of format-pair converters.

Its Haskell implementation and library API also make packaging consequential: command-line tools and compiled filters may track Pandoc API compatibility, while templates, filters, citation processors, and defaults files form a largely package-manager-independent extension layer.

Timeline

• 2006: The official project copyright history begins.
• Later evolution: Pandoc added a reusable Haskell library, JSON and Lua filtering, templates, citation processing, and defaults files.
• Current era: Pandoc is packaged across major Unix-like and Windows package ecosystems and underpins a broad document-tooling ecosystem.

Related projects

• pandoc-crossref extends Pandoc documents with numbered cross-references. pandoc-plot executes plotting blocks and inserts generated figures. Pandocomatic automates reusable Pandoc conversion templates and processing pipelines. Pandemics supplies an opinionated manuscript-publishing framework around Pandoc.

Sources

• https://github.com/jgm/pandoc/blob/main/README.md
• https://pandoc.org/MANUAL.html
• https://pandoc.org/releases.html
• source_facts.package-manager