macOS
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brew install aalibprovider-native install command
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Install aalib with Homebrew
Portable ASCII art graphics library. Version 1.4rc5 via Homebrew; verified 2026-07-10.
install
Additional install commands
overview
Package summary
Portable ASCII art graphics library
Project links
Commands and aliases
- aafire
- aainfo
- aalib-config
- aasavefont
- aatest
history
Project history and usage
AA-lib is a portable ASCII-art graphics library that renders graphics into text-mode output instead of relying on a graphical display.
Project history
The AA-Project documentation says Jan Hubicka started the project after experiments with old Hercules monochrome displays and an ASCII rendering approach for images and fractals. The manual frames AA-lib as a graphics-library API whose main difference is that it renders to ASCII art.
The official manual pages were generated from aalib.texinfo in 1997 and 1998, placing AA-lib squarely in the late-1990s Unix demo, terminal, and low-end-hardware graphics culture.
Adoption history
The AA-Project homepage lists software known to support AA output, including ttyquake, SDL, GIMP, and XaoS-era projects. Its appeal was not merely rendering still images, but making graphical demos, viewers, games, and effects run in text environments.
How it is used
Programs link against AA-lib or use its bundled tools to initialize a text-mode display, parse AA-specific command-line options, tune rendering parameters, and draw images as ASCII. The manual documents the AAOPTS environment variable for setting options across AA-lib programs.
Why package nerds care
AA-lib is a classic package-manager curiosity: small, portable, visibly weird, and useful as both a library and a demo source. Its bundled commands such as aafire and aatest made it memorable on Unix systems because installing it immediately produced terminal graphics.
Timeline
- 1997: aalib.texinfo-generated documentation appears for the ASCII-art library.
- 1998: AA-lib manual pages are regenerated and published on the AA-Project site.
- 2000s: AA-Project moves from its original home to SourceForge.
- 2026: SourceForge still exposes the AA-Project CVS/code area as the project source surface.
Related projects
- Related AA-Project software includes BB, Aview, AAvga, AA3D, and XaoS; the homepage also lists external software with AA output support.
Sources
security posture
Risk level: green
library-like package without higher-risk signals.
Risk classifier
green risk · low confidence · appliance
Why
- library-like package without higher-risk signals
Signals
- metadata:library-like
Install behavior
- No Homebrew bottle metadata was recorded.
Recommended review
Before unattended agent use, check whether the tool reads plaintext credentials, writes remote state, publishes artifacts, or shells out to plugins.
executables
Installed executables
| Command | Kind | Exposure | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
aafire | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
aainfo | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
aalib-config | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
aasavefont | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
aatest | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
freshness
Version and freshness
These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.
page generated2026-08-03
manager version1.4rc5
manager updated2026-07-10
local dataunknown
upstreamnot available
latest detectednot detected
- okNo freshness warnings were generated.
install metadata
Package metadata
| Package key | brew:aalib |
|---|---|
| Version | 1.4rc5 |
| Package manager | Homebrew |
| Homepage | https://aa-project.sourceforge.net/aalib/ |
| Last updated | 2026-07-10T13:46:10-04:00 |
| Pulse | updated |
| Bottle | not recorded |
| Service | none declared |
source trail
Generated from repository data
This page is generated by av-web from the private package SQLite artifact built by scripts/generate-pkg-sqlite.py.
Combined YAML source
View the package source record on GitHub.
Used sources
- Geiger risk classifier
- Nucleus package database
- curated package history
- pkgdb category and tag curation