# Install flann with Homebrew

Fast Library for Approximate Nearest Neighbors. Version 1.9.2 via Homebrew; verified from local package data.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:flann
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install flann
```

  Evidence: provider-native install command

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:flann
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 1.9.2
- **Source summary:** Fast Library for Approximate Nearest Neighbors
- **Homepage:** <https://github.com/flann-lib/flann>
- **Repository:** <https://github.com/flann-lib/flann>
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T00:40:33+00:00

## Executables

- flann_example_c (alias)
- flann_example_cpp (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 1.9.2
## Project history and usage

FLANN, the Fast Library for Approximate Nearest Neighbors, is a C++ library for fast approximate nearest-neighbor search in high-dimensional spaces. Its README describes both a collection of nearest-neighbor algorithms and automatic selection of an algorithm and parameters for a given dataset.

### Project history

The public repository history begins in 2007, and the project was documented academically in the 2009 Muja and Lowe VISAPP paper on automatic algorithm configuration for approximate nearest neighbors. The project later exposed C, MATLAB, Python, and Ruby bindings around the C++ implementation, making the research code useful as a packaged native library rather than only as an experiment.

### Adoption history

FLANN became a common dependency in scientific, machine-learning, and computer-vision packaging because it provides a reusable native nearest-neighbor engine with bindings. Homebrew packages it as a formula, while the official README points users to release archives and source checkout for development.

### How it is used

Users bring FLANN into applications that need approximate nearest-neighbor lookup over feature vectors or other high-dimensional data. The bundled package executables are examples; the main package value is the library and its language bindings.

### Why package nerds care

FLANN is package-nerd interesting because it is classic research software that became infrastructure: a C++ core, language bindings, release archives, example binaries, and packaging concerns around native builds rather than a single end-user CLI.

### Timeline

- 2007: Initial public repository import.
- 2009: Muja and Lowe publish the FLANN algorithm-configuration paper.
- 2012: 1.8.0 source tag appears in the public git history.
- 2021: 1.9.2 tag appears in the public git history.

### Related projects

- The official README ties FLANN to its C, MATLAB, Python, and Ruby bindings, and to approximate nearest-neighbor research rather than to a single desktop application.

### Sources

- <https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/flann>
- <https://github.com/flann-lib/flann>
- <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/flann-lib/flann/master/README.md>
- <https://www.cs.ubc.ca/research/flann/uploads/FLANN/flann_visapp09.pdf>


## Security Notes

library-like package without higher-risk signals.

- **Geiger risk:** green / low
- library-like package without higher-risk signals


## Combined YAML source

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


## Sources

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