# Install bcal with Homebrew, apt, dnf, Nix, zypper

Storage conversion and expression calculator. Version 2.5 via Homebrew; verified from local package data. Also installable with debian: sudo apt install bcal.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:bcal
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install bcal
```

  Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata

### Linux

- Debian apt (92%):

```sh
sudo apt install bcal
```

  Evidence: Debian stable package indexes: bcal from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz

- dnf (92%):

```sh
sudo dnf install bcal
```

  Evidence: Fedora Rawhide package metadata: bcal from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/07190dc5ae9f35ae73866675fed6d95fe6e8d9fe22c9d7cdf85862cb2ed24a4c-primary.xml.zst

- Nix (92%):

```sh
nix profile install nixpkgs#bcal
```

  Evidence: nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/bc/bcal/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1

- zypper (92%):

```sh
sudo zypper install bcal
```

  Evidence: openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: bcal from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/50b07339cb64c8ed4091bdbabddadc1ff5737b090e478818a195b40d8a3292861a879139b4a3987c31109699fde9fbf4a716367ddf4eef77da75f96e3193d6ed-primary.xml.zst

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:bcal
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 2.5
- **Source summary:** Storage conversion and expression calculator
- **Homepage:** <https://github.com/jarun/bcal>
- **Repository:** <https://github.com/jarun/bcal>
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T19:37:03+00:00

## Executables

- bcal (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 2.5
## Project history and usage

bcal is a small C command-line calculator aimed at people who think in bytes, sectors, addresses, and binary prefixes.

### Project history

The upstream GitHub repository was created in 2016. Its README describes bcal, the Byte CALculator, as a REPL and single-shot CLI for storage expressions, SI/IEC conversion, byte address calculation, base conversion, and CHS/LBA calculations.

The project keeps dependencies modest: standard libc plus GNU Readline or BSD Editline, with a no-readline build option that uses its own prompt and history-file support.

### Adoption history

bcal is packaged beyond Homebrew, including Debian, Fedora, Nix, Ubuntu, and openSUSE-family package sets in the supplied package-manager facts. Its README points users to package-manager installation first and shows Repology packaging status.

### How it is used

Users run bcal as an interactive storage calculator, pass quoted expressions for one-shot evaluation, convert between decimal, hexadecimal, binary, SI, and IEC units, or calculate disk CHS/LBA values.

When built without Readline, its history file is stored under $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/bcal/history or $HOME/.config/bcal/history.

### Why package nerds care

bcal is the kind of niche CLI package that saves repeated mental arithmetic for storage engineers, filesystem debuggers, firmware people, and anyone reading sector offsets in hex.

Its significance is not ecosystem scale but fit: it packages a cluster of byte-addressing calculations that general calculators rarely make pleasant.

### Timeline

- 2016: GitHub repository created.
- 2018: README-linked asciinema demo published.
- 2020s: Packaged in Homebrew and several Linux distributions.

### Related projects

- bc and dc cover general arbitrary-precision calculation but not bcal's storage-unit and disk-addressing workflow.
- disk utilities, hex calculators, and filesystem debugging tools overlap with bcal's audience.

### Sources

- <https://github.com/jarun/bcal>
- <https://github.com/jarun/bcal#readme>
- source_facts.package-manager


## Security Notes

narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.

- **Geiger risk:** green / low
- narrow executable package without higher-risk signals

## Other Package-Manager Records

- Debian apt - bcal - 2.4-2+b1: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: bcal from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | Command-line utility for storage conversions and calculations | https://github.com/jarun/bcal
- Nix - bcal: normalized package name match | nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/bc/bcal/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1
- Ubuntu apt - bcal - 2.4-2: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: bcal from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | Command-line utility for storage conversions and calculations | https://github.com/jarun/bcal
- dnf - bcal - 2.5-2.fc45: normalized package name match | Fedora Rawhide package metadata: bcal from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/07190dc5ae9f35ae73866675fed6d95fe6e8d9fe22c9d7cdf85862cb2ed24a4c-primary.xml.zst | Storage conversion and expression calculator | https://github.com/jarun/bcal
- zypper - bcal - 2.4-2.5: normalized package name match | openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: bcal from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/50b07339cb64c8ed4091bdbabddadc1ff5737b090e478818a195b40d8a3292861a879139b4a3987c31109699fde9fbf4a716367ddf4eef77da75f96e3193d6ed-primary.xml.zst | Command-line utility for storage conversions and calculations | http://www.github.com/jarun/bcal


## Combined YAML source

View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/bcal.yml](https://github.com/mxcl/pkgdb/blob/main/combined/bcal.yml)


## Sources

- pkg.so package database
- Geiger risk classifier
- curated package history
- pkgdb category and tag curation
- external package-manager database matches
- cross-ecosystem install command graph