# Install boxes with Homebrew, apk, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, scoop
Draw boxes around text. Version 2.3.1 via Homebrew; verified 2026-06-22. Also installable with debian: sudo apt install boxes.
## Install
```sh
sudo av install brew:boxes
```
Additional install commands:
### macOS
- Homebrew (100%):
```sh
brew install boxes
```
Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata
- MacPorts (94%):
```sh
sudo port install boxes
```
Evidence: MacPorts ports tree: textproc/boxes/Portfile from https://api.github.com/repos/macports/macports-ports/git/trees/master?recursive=1
### Linux
- apk (92%):
```sh
sudo apk add boxes
```
Evidence: Alpine Linux edge package indexes: boxes from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/testing/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz
- Debian apt (92%):
```sh
sudo apt install boxes
```
Evidence: Debian stable package indexes: boxes from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz
- dnf (92%):
```sh
sudo dnf install boxes
```
Evidence: Fedora Rawhide package metadata: boxes 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#boxes
```
Evidence: nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/bo/boxes/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1
### Windows
- Scoop (92%):
```sh
scoop install main/boxes
```
Evidence: Scoop official bucket manifest trees: bucket/boxes.json from https://api.github.com/repos/ScoopInstaller/Main/git/trees/master?recursive=1
## Package facts
- **Package key:** brew:boxes
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 2.3.1
- **Source summary:** Draw boxes around text
- **Homepage:**
- **Repository:**
- **Last updated:** 2026-06-22T14:02:55-07:00
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T19:37:03+00:00
## Executables
- boxes (alias)
## Install behavior
- Bottle: not available
## Freshness
- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 2.3.1
## Project history and usage
boxes is a long-lived Unix-style text filter for drawing, removing, and repairing ASCII art boxes around text. Its own README describes it as stable software that has existed since 1999 and remains available through many package managers.
### Project history
The project is maintained under the ascii-boxes organization and documents Thomas Jensen's official website, manual page, and configuration syntax as its primary user-facing surfaces. The modern GitHub history includes a v1.0 tag in 2014 and ongoing maintenance releases into the 2020s, while the README says the program itself dates back to 1999.
The program's historical shape is classic filter culture: it reads text, applies a named box design, and writes transformed text. Later documentation emphasizes user-defined box designs, shared configuration files, editor integration, and portability across Unix-like systems and Windows.
### Adoption history
The official README notes package-manager availability across apt, rpm, choco, brew, and other ecosystems. The Homebrew input also lists boxes in apk, brew, Debian, Fedora, MacPorts, Nix, Scoop, and Ubuntu, which matches its role as a small portable utility rather than a single-platform application.
Adoption is helped by its editor-filter workflow: the manual and website describe using boxes from editors that can pipe text through external filters, making it useful for source comments, email, plain-text notes, and README ornamentation.
### How it is used
Typical usage pipes text into the command, for example the official README's `echo foo | boxes`, then chooses designs with options such as listing available boxes. The configuration documentation explains that custom designs live in boxes config files and can be shared back through the repository.
Because it is a pure command-line filter, boxes composes naturally with shells, editors, and scripts. Its value is not heavy document rendering; it is quick decoration and comment-block formatting in plain text.
### Why package nerds care
boxes is package-nerd catnip because it is tiny, old, portable, and visually obvious: a package manager installs one command and the user immediately sees a text transformation. It represents the ornamental side of Unix filters, where package collections preserve small tools whose usefulness is partly practical and partly cultural.
The project also has an unusually packageable asset: the box-design database. That makes it more than a binary wrapper; distributions are shipping a small command plus a community-curated catalog of ASCII layouts.
### Timeline
- 1999: Project origin date stated in the official README.
- 2014: v1.0 tag appears in the official GitHub repository.
- 2021: v2.1.1 tag appears in the official GitHub repository.
- 2024: Official website documents v2.3.1 as a maintenance release.
### Related projects
- boxes relates to classic Unix text filters, editor filter commands, figlet-style terminal ornamentation, and other ASCII-art utilities.
- Its closest project-specific related artifact is the official boxes-config file, where the bundled and contributed box designs are maintained.
### Sources
-
-
-
-
- source_facts.package-manager
## Security Notes
narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.
- **Geiger risk:** green / low
- narrow executable package without higher-risk signals
## Configuration and credential file locations
These source-backed paths show where this package keeps local settings or durable credentials. Automic Vault can use them as review targets for secret scanning, migration, and command approval.
## Configuration files
- Unix: ~/.boxes, ~/.config/boxes/.boxes, /usr/share/boxes
## Other Package-Manager Records
- Debian apt - boxes - 2.3.1-1: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: boxes from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | textmode box- and comment drawing filter | https://boxes.thomasjensen.com/
- Nix - boxes: normalized package name match | nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/bo/boxes/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1
- Ubuntu apt - boxes - 2.2.1-1: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: boxes from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | textmode box- and comment drawing filter | https://boxes.thomasjensen.com/
- apk - boxes - 2.3.1-r0: normalized package name match | Alpine Linux edge package indexes: boxes from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/testing/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz | Text mode box and comment drawing filter | https://boxes.thomasjensen.com
- apk - boxes-doc - 2.3.1-r0: normalized package name match | Alpine Linux edge package indexes: boxes-doc from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/testing/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz | Text mode box and comment drawing filter (documentation) | https://boxes.thomasjensen.com
- dnf - boxes - 2.3.1-6.fc45: normalized package name match | Fedora Rawhide package metadata: boxes from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/07190dc5ae9f35ae73866675fed6d95fe6e8d9fe22c9d7cdf85862cb2ed24a4c-primary.xml.zst | Command line ASCII boxes unlimited! | http://boxes.thomasjensen.com
- dnf - boxes-vim - 2.3.1-6.fc45: normalized package name match | Fedora Rawhide package metadata: boxes-vim from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/07190dc5ae9f35ae73866675fed6d95fe6e8d9fe22c9d7cdf85862cb2ed24a4c-primary.xml.zst | Vim plugin for boxes | http://boxes.thomasjensen.com
- MacPorts - boxes: normalized package name match | MacPorts ports tree: textproc/boxes/Portfile from https://api.github.com/repos/macports/macports-ports/git/trees/master?recursive=1
- Scoop - main/boxes: normalized package name match | Scoop official bucket manifest trees: bucket/boxes.json from https://api.github.com/repos/ScoopInstaller/Main/git/trees/master?recursive=1
## Combined YAML source
View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/boxes.yml](https://github.com/mxcl/pkgdb/blob/main/combined/boxes.yml)
## Sources
- pkg.so package database
- Geiger risk classifier
- curated configuration and credential file locations
- curated package history
- pkgdb category and tag curation
- external package-manager database matches
- cross-ecosystem install command graph