# Install distribution with Homebrew, Nix, zypper

Create ASCII graphical histograms in the terminal. Version 1.3 via Homebrew; verified from local package data. Also installable with nix: nix profile install nixpkgs#distribution.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:distribution
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install distribution
```

  Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata

### Linux

- Nix (92%):

```sh
nix profile install nixpkgs#distribution
```

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

- zypper (92%):

```sh
sudo zypper install distribution-registry
```

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

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:distribution
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 1.3
- **Source summary:** Create ASCII graphical histograms in the terminal
- **Homepage:** <https://github.com/time-less-ness/distribution>
- **Repository:** <https://github.com/time-less-ness/distribution>
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T19:37:03+00:00

## Executables

- distribution (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 1.3
## Project history and usage

distribution is a terminal histogram and graphing tool for turning command output into character-based charts. Its appeal is the old Unix habit of inserting one small filter into a pipeline to make text data easier to inspect.

### Project history

The README says the original scripts were written in Perl and Python by Tim Ellis, then expanded beyond simple frequency histograms into time-series and arbitrary x-axis graphs. The current canonical README also records a project-control transfer from the previous maintainer to wizzat.

### Adoption history

distribution's own installation notes mention Homebrew as the simple install route, while the input package facts show availability in Brew and Nix. That is modest adoption, but enough to place it in the family of small terminal data-inspection packages.

### How it is used

The common pattern is to pipe a list, count stream, syslog slice, process list, or du output into distribution and let it render a proportional ASCII or Unicode chart. It supports tokenization, pre-aggregated key/value input, numeric-only graphs, colors, terminal-size aware output, and an rcfile for preferred defaults.

### Why package nerds care

distribution is package-nerdy because it makes ad hoc shell observability friendlier without asking users to leave the terminal or produce a heavyweight plot. It is the kind of tiny data tool that survives in package managers because it composes with everything.

### Timeline

- 2017: Current canonical GitHub repository created.
- 2017: README records transfer of project control to the wizzat distribution repository.
- 2022: Repository metadata shows continued maintenance activity into the early 2020s.

### Related projects

- The README names holman's spark as a related compact graphing project, contrasting spark's smaller output with distribution's more verbose higher-resolution charts.
- Standard Unix tools such as sort, uniq, du, awk, and ps are common upstream producers for distribution pipelines.

### Sources

- <https://github.com/time-less-ness/distribution#readme>
- <https://api.github.com/repos/time-less-ness/distribution>


## Security Notes

narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.

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

## Other Package-Manager Records

- Nix - distribution: normalized package name match | nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/di/distribution/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1
- zypper - distribution-registry - 3.1.1-4.2: normalized package name match | openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: distribution-registry from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/50b07339cb64c8ed4091bdbabddadc1ff5737b090e478818a195b40d8a3292861a879139b4a3987c31109699fde9fbf4a716367ddf4eef77da75f96e3193d6ed-primary.xml.zst | Registry server following OCI Distribution Specification | https://github.com/distribution/distribution


## Combined YAML source

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