Install bsdiff with Homebrew

Project links

• Homepage

Commands and aliases

• bsdiff

Project history

The official page describes bsdiff and bspatch as tools for building and applying binary patches. It explains that they use suffix sorting, specifically Larsson and Sadakane's qsufsort, and exploit the way executable files change to make much smaller patches than contemporary binary patch tools.

The same page says the programs were originally named `bdiff` and `bpatch`, but were renamed because many other programs used those names. It published version 4.3 as a tarball and identifies the BSDiff 4 algorithm with Percival's 2003 paper, `Naive differences of executable code`.

Adoption history

By the time version 4.2 was described on the official page, bsdiff was already in the FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD ports trees, DarwinPorts, Gentoo, and as a Python extension module. The provided package facts show wider modern packaging across Homebrew, Debian, Fedora/dnf, MacPorts, Nix, Ubuntu, and openSUSE/zypper.

bsdiff also influenced the packaging and update world indirectly: binary delta algorithms of this style are natural fits for software update systems, where shaving patch size saves bandwidth and time.

How it is used

`bsdiff` compares an old file and a new file to produce a compact patch; `bspatch` applies that patch to reconstruct the new file. The package is most useful for compiled binaries and other files where line-oriented text diffs are ineffective.

The official page documents its resource profile: bsdiff is memory-hungry and runs in O((n+m) log n), while bspatch runs in O(n+m). That tradeoff is acceptable for many release pipelines because patch creation happens once, while patch application may happen many times.

Why package nerds care

bsdiff is package-nerd famous because it is a small command with an outsized effect on binary distribution. It gives maintainers a simple way to ship deltas instead of whole files, and its paper made the algorithm understandable enough to reimplement and adapt.

It is also a classic example of a package whose upstream is not a modern forge repository. Package managers preserve the tool through tarballs, patches, and downstream maintenance even without a canonical GitHub-style source-control home.

Timeline

• 2003: Colin Percival describes the BSDiff 4 algorithm in `Naive differences of executable code`.
• 2000s: Version 4.2 is available in FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD ports, DarwinPorts, Gentoo, and as a Python extension.
• 2005: Version 4.3 is published on the official daemonology.net bsdiff page.
• 2026: Provided package facts show bsdiff available across Homebrew, Debian, Fedora/dnf, MacPorts, Nix, Ubuntu, and openSUSE/zypper.

Related projects

• bspatch is the companion patch-application utility shipped with bsdiff.
• xdelta is the comparison tool named by the official page for binary delta compression.
• RTPatch is the commercial binary patch tool named by the official page as another comparison point.
• FreeBSD Update is historically associated with Colin Percival's binary-update work and the wider bsdiff ecosystem.

Sources

• https://www.daemonology.net/bsdiff
• https://www.daemonology.net/papers/bsdiff.pdf
• source_facts.package-manager