# Install getxbook with Homebrew, Nix

Tools to download ebooks from various sources. Version 1.2 via Homebrew; verified from local package data. Also installable with nix: nix profile install nixpkgs#getxbook.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:getxbook
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install getxbook
```

  Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata

### Linux

- Nix (92%):

```sh
nix profile install nixpkgs#getxbook
```

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

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:getxbook
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 1.2
- **Source summary:** Tools to download ebooks from various sources
- **Homepage:** <https://njw.name/getxbook/>
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T19:37:03+00:00

## Executables

- getabook (alias)
- getbnbook (alias)
- getgbook (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 1.2
## Project history and usage

getxbook is a small C toolkit for downloading page images from Google Books previews, Amazon Look Inside, and Barnes & Noble Book Viewer. Its place in package history is tied to offline reading, book privacy, and scriptable capture of preview-page services rather than to a large application ecosystem.

### Project history

Nick White published getxbook as a collection of one-purpose tools: getgbook for Google Books, getabook for Amazon, getbnbook for Barnes & Noble, and an optional Tcl/Tk graphical frontend. The official page frames the project around reading privacy and offline control of page scans, while the download list records public source and binary releases in 2013 and 2015.

### Adoption history

Adoption remained niche but visible in Unix package-manager culture. Homebrew carried the macOS formula, and the input package facts also list Nix packaging, which fits the tool's small, source-buildable shape.

### How it is used

Practitioners use getxbook by choosing the site-specific command for a book source, letting the tool save page images into a local directory, and resuming partial downloads when a run is stopped. The surrounding scripts support conversion workflows such as searchable PDF, DjVu, and OCR-derived text.

### Why package nerds care

getxbook is notable as a compact, portable C package with few dependencies beyond libc, sockets, and OpenSSL. For package maintainers, that makes it a classic small utility: easy to build, easy to audit, and heavily shaped by the fragility of the remote services it automates.

### Timeline

- 2013: Version 1.1 binaries were published for Linux and Windows.
- 2015: Version 1.2 source was published.
- Homebrew era: A macOS formula made the command-line tools installable with brew.

### Related projects

- The official comparison page discusses PySheng, Google Book Downloader, and a Google Book Downloader userscript as nearby tools with narrower service coverage or heavier dependencies.

### Sources

- <https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/getxbook>
- <https://github.com/phracker/getxbook/blob/master/getxbook.1>
- <https://njw.name/getxbook/>
- <https://njw.name/getxbook/comparison>


## Security Notes

broad file, network, media, or database tool signal.

- **Geiger risk:** blue / medium
- broad file, network, media, or database tool signal

## Other Package-Manager Records

- Nix - getxbook: normalized package name match | nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/ge/getxbook/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1


## Combined YAML source

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