macOS
Homebrewverified · 100%
brew install blockhashlocal Homebrew formula metadata
brew / rank 6200
Install blockhash with Homebrew, Nix
Perceptual image hash calculation tool. Version 0.3.3 via Homebrew; verified 2026-07-06. Also installable with nix: nix profile install nixpkgs#blockhash.
install
Additional install commands
Linux
Nixverified · 92%
nix profile install nixpkgs#blockhashnixpkgs package indexes · pkgs/by-name/bl/blockhash/package.nix · source: api.github.com
overview
Package summary
Perceptual image hash calculation tool
Project links
Commands and aliases
- blockhash
history
Project history and usage
blockhash is a small Commons Machinery command-line tool for computing perceptual image hashes. It packages the block mean value perceptual-hashing algorithm into a Unix-style utility that can hash one or more images from the shell.
Project history
The official README says blockhash is based on the algorithm described in 'Block Mean Value Based Image Perceptual Hashing' by Bian Yang, Fan Gu, and Xiamu Niu. GitHub metadata dates the repository to September 2014, and the README copyright line names Commons Machinery in 2014.
The release history shows v0.1 in December 2014, follow-up 0.2 releases in January 2017, v0.3 in November 2017, and later maintenance releases through v0.3.3 in January 2023.
Adoption history
blockhash has narrow but durable package adoption. The input metadata records Homebrew and Nix packages, which is enough for scripts and reproducible media-processing environments to depend on the CLI without building the ImageMagick-backed source manually.
How it is used
The README documents a direct CLI workflow: run `blockhash` with a list of images to calculate hashes, or `blockhash --help` for options. Building from source requires ImageMagick's MagickWand development library and the waf build script.
Why package nerds care
blockhash matters as a compact packaged implementation of perceptual hashing, useful for duplicate detection, image comparison, media archives, and content pipelines where cryptographic hashes are too brittle because visually similar images may have different bytes.
Timeline
- 2014: Official repository created and v0.1 released.
- 2017: 0.2 and v0.3 releases published.
- 2023: v0.3.3 maintenance release published.
Related projects
- ImageMagick/MagickWand is the image-processing dependency named in the README.
- The underlying perceptual-hashing method comes from the block mean value image hashing paper cited by the README.
- Other perceptual-hash tools and media duplicate-detection pipelines are adjacent use cases.
Sources
- GitHub repository metadata via gh api repos/commonsmachinery/blockhash
- https://github.com/commonsmachinery/blockhash#readme
- https://github.com/commonsmachinery/blockhash/releases
- source_facts.package-manager
security posture
Risk level: blue
broad file, network, media, or database tool signal.
Risk classifier
blue risk · medium confidence · tool
Why
- broad file, network, media, or database tool signal
Signals
- text:image
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
blockhash | 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 version0.3.3
manager updated2026-07-06
local dataunknown
upstreamnot available
latest detectednot detected
- okNo freshness warnings were generated.
install metadata
Package metadata
| Package key | brew:blockhash |
|---|---|
| Version | 0.3.3 |
| Package manager | Homebrew |
| Homepage | https://github.com/commonsmachinery/blockhash |
| Repository | https://github.com/commonsmachinery/blockhash |
| Last updated | 2026-07-06T11:06:08Z |
| Pulse | updated |
| Bottle | not recorded |
| Service | none declared |
source database matches
Other package-manager records
Matches are pulled from external package-manager indexes and kept separate from local Automic Vault package links.
Nix95%
blockhash
nix profile install nixpkgs#blockhash- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Blockhash
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
- cross-ecosystem install command graph
- curated package history
- external package-manager database matches
- pkg.so package database
- pkgdb category and tag curation