# Install empty with Homebrew

Lightweight Expect-like PTY tool for shell scripts. Version 0.6.23d via Homebrew; verified from local package data.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:empty
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install empty
```

  Evidence: provider-native install command

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:empty
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 0.6.23d
- **Source summary:** Lightweight Expect-like PTY tool for shell scripts
- **Homepage:** <https://empty.sourceforge.net/>
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T00:40:33+00:00

## Executables

- empty (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 0.6.23d
## Project history and usage

`empty` is a lightweight Unix PTY automation tool meant to let shell scripts drive interactive programs without pulling in Tcl/Expect, Perl, Python, or a larger scripting runtime.

### Project history

The official site says `empty` was written by Mikhail E. Zakharov, based on the idea of Daniel J. Bernstein's pty-4.0 but without porting pty-4.0 code. Its copyright notice spans 2005 to 2020.

### Adoption history

The project page lists successful compilation and testing on a broad set of Unix-like systems, including BSDs, macOS, Linux, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, OSF1, and Cygwin. That portability is the main adoption story rather than a large ecosystem.

### How it is used

`empty` runs a process under a pseudo-terminal and then sends or waits for text through named input and output files. The homepage compares a short telnet login sequence against Tcl/Expect, Perl Expect, and Python Pexpect examples.

### Why package nerds care

The package is interesting because it keeps the old Unix promise small: PTY scripting from plain shell, entirely in C, with minimal dependencies. It is the sort of utility that survives in package managers because it solves one awkward automation job without dragging in a language stack.

### Related projects

- The homepage compares `empty` directly with Tcl/Expect, Perl Expect, and Python Pexpect, and notes the conceptual link to pty-4.0.

### Sources

- <https://empty.sourceforge.net/>
- <https://sourceforge.net/p/empty/code>


## Security Notes

generalized runtime or code generation signal.

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


## Combined YAML source

View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/empty.yml](https://github.com/automic-vault/db/blob/main/combined/empty.yml)


## Sources

- Nucleus package database
- Geiger risk classifier
- curated package history
- pkgdb category and tag curation