# Install bold with Homebrew, Nix

Drop-in replacement for Apple system linker ld. Version 0.2.0 via Homebrew; verified 2026-06-14. Also installable with nix: nix profile install nixpkgs#bold.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:bold
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install bold
```

  Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata

### Linux

- Nix (92%):

```sh
nix profile install nixpkgs#bold
```

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

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:bold
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 0.2.0
- **Source summary:** Drop-in replacement for Apple system linker ld
- **Homepage:** <https://codeberg.org/kubkon/bold>
- **Last updated:** 2026-06-14T14:14:32-04:00
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T19:37:03+00:00

## Executables

- bold (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 0.2.0
## Project history and usage

bold is a Zig-written drop-in replacement for Apple's system linker `ld`, focused on Mach-O linking on Apple platforms.

### Project history

The official README says bold used to be emerald, but the broader emerald driver effort was split off because of maintainer time constraints. The README positions bold as a direct competitor to LLVM lld and Apple's linker, with benchmark comparisons against Apple's rewritten linker, classic Apple ld, and lld.

### Adoption history

bold is a young specialist developer tool. The input package facts show Homebrew and Nix packaging, which is the expected adoption path for an experimental linker aimed at macOS and Zig-adjacent systems developers.

### How it is used

Typical usage is building with nightly Zig, then passing bold to C or C++ compilers with `-fuse-ld=bold` for clang or `-B/path/to/bold` for gcc-style toolchains.

### Why package nerds care

bold is interesting to package nerds because linkers are rarely casual dependencies; packaging it means exposing an alternate toolchain component that must match platform object formats, compiler driver behavior, and system linker expectations.

### Timeline

- 2026: The Codeberg repository metadata records the public bold repository creation.
- 2026: The README describes bold as the focused successor to the earlier emerald effort.

### Related projects

- Related projects include Apple ld, Apple's classic ld mode, LLVM lld, Zig, and the earlier emerald project.

### Sources

- <https://codeberg.org/api/v1/repos/kubkon/bold>
- <https://codeberg.org/kubkon/bold>
- input.source_facts.package-manager


## Security Notes

generalized runtime or code generation signal.

- **Geiger risk:** yellow / medium
- generalized runtime or code generation signal

## Other Package-Manager Records

- Nix - bold: normalized package name match | nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/bo/bold/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1


## Combined YAML source

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