macOS
Homebrewverified ยท 100%
brew install gmtprovider-native install command
brew / rank 2704
Install gmt with Homebrew
Tools for manipulating and plotting geographic and Cartesian data. Version 6.7.0 via Homebrew; verified 2026-07-30.
install
Additional install commands
overview
Package summary
Tools for manipulating and plotting geographic and Cartesian data
Project links
Commands and aliases
- fz_funcs
- fz_funcs.sh
- fzmodeler
- fzprofiler
- gmt
- gmt-config
- gmt_shell_functions.sh
- gmt_update
- gmtswitch
- isogmt
history
Project history and usage
GMT, the Generic Mapping Tools, is an open-source collection of command-line tools for manipulating geographic and Cartesian datasets and producing publication-quality maps, plots, illustrations, and animations. It is a long-running geoscience package with a strong scripting culture.
Project history
GMT was initiated in late 1987 at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, by graduate students Paul Wessel and Walter H. F. Smith. Version 1 was introduced to Lamont scientists in July 1988, then spread by word of mouth and tape to institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and France.
Version 2.0 was released with a 1991 EOS article and spread worldwide. Version 3.0 followed in 1993 and was described in a 1995 EOS article; a major GMT 4 upgrade arrived in October 2004.
GMT 5 was released in 2013 with broad backward compatibility for GMT 4 syntax. GMT 6 arrived in 2019 with modern mode, a major workflow change intended to make plotting scripts easier to write while retaining the classic command-line model.
The project also professionalized its research-software identity through citation records. The official citation page lists papers for GMT 2, GMT 3, GMT 5, GMT 6, GMT/MATLAB, animation support, and the project's origin story, along with Zenodo DOIs for releases.
Adoption history
The official site describes GMT as widely used across Earth, ocean, and planetary sciences and beyond, with GMT-made illustrations appearing in scientific journals, meeting posters, Wikipedia pages, and other publications.
The README broadens that audience to medical research, engineering, physics, mathematics, social and biological sciences, geography, fisheries institutes, oil companies, government agencies, and hobbyists. The official About page describes tens of thousands of users worldwide.
Packaging helped that adoption because GMT is naturally scriptable. Scientists could install a stable command suite through Unix package managers, keep plotting recipes in shell scripts or Makefiles, and reproduce figures without a graphical GIS workflow.
How it is used
Practitioners use GMT modules for filtering, trend fitting, gridding, projecting, map projection transformations, contour maps, illuminated surfaces, 3D perspective views, and animations. The README describes about 100 core command-line tools plus around 50 specialized supplement tools.
A typical GMT workflow combines data tables or grids with commands that transform, grid, style, and render figures. The package also brings supporting data such as GSHHG coastlines, rivers, political boundaries, and optional Digital Chart of the World polygons.
Modern mode in GMT 6 lets users write more concise figure scripts, while classic mode remains important for long-lived shell pipelines and publications with reproducible plotting commands.
Why package nerds care
GMT is a canonical scientific CLI package: many small commands, strict text/data interfaces, stable documentation, optional datasets, and decades of scripts in the wild. Package managers keep that ecosystem available without each lab maintaining a custom build.
It also sits at the intersection of Unix plotting, cartography, and research reproducibility. A GMT package is not just an application install; it is often part of a paper's build chain.
Timeline
- 1987: GMT initiated at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
- 1988: Version 1 introduced to Lamont scientists.
- 1991: Version 2.0 released with an EOS article.
- 1993: Version 3.0 released.
- 2004: GMT 4.0 major upgrade released.
- 2013: GMT 5 series released.
- 2019: GMT 6 released with modern mode.
- 2025: GMT 6.6.0 release published.
Related projects
- GSHHG and DCW provide common support datasets used by GMT.
- netCDF, GDAL, PCRE, FFTW, LAPACK, BLAS, GLib, Zlib, Ghostscript, FFmpeg, and GraphicsMagick are named by the README as important dependencies or external tools.
- PyGMT, GMT/MATLAB, GMT.jl, and related interfaces make GMT available from Python, MATLAB/Octave, Julia, and other environments.
Sources
- https://api.github.com/repos/GenericMappingTools/gmt
- https://docs.generic-mapping-tools.org/6.6/
- https://docs.generic-mapping-tools.org/6.6/changes.html
- https://github.com/GenericMappingTools/gmt
- https://www.generic-mapping-tools.org/
- https://www.generic-mapping-tools.org/about/
- https://www.generic-mapping-tools.org/cite/
security posture
No protected-tool coverage found yet
No matching local secret-handling manifest was found for gmt. Nucleus package metadata is still published here so future coverage has a stable package URL.
Install behavior
- No Homebrew bottle metadata was recorded.
Recommended review
Before unattended agent use, check whether the tool reads plaintext credentials, writes remote state, publishes artifacts, or shells out to plugins.
local files
Configuration and credential file locations
These source-backed paths show where this package keeps local settings or durable credentials. Automic Vault can use them as review targets for secret scanning, migration, and command approval.
Configuration files
Config paths the tool may read or write during local use.
- Unix
./gmt.conf$GMT_USERDIR/gmt.conf~/.gmt/gmt.conf
executables
Installed executables
| Command | Kind | Exposure | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
fz_funcs | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
fz_funcs.sh | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
fzmodeler | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
fzprofiler | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
gmt | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
gmt-config | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
gmt_shell_functions.sh | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
gmt_update | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
gmtswitch | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
isogmt | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
freshness
Version and freshness
These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.
page generated2026-08-03
manager version6.7.0
manager updated2026-07-30
local dataunknown
upstreamnot available
latest detectednot detected
- okNo freshness warnings were generated.
install metadata
Package metadata
| Package key | brew:gmt |
|---|---|
| Version | 6.7.0 |
| Package manager | Homebrew |
| Homepage | https://www.generic-mapping-tools.org/ |
| Repository | https://github.com/GenericMappingTools/gmt |
| Last updated | 2026-07-30T11:41:11Z |
| Pulse | updated |
| Bottle | not recorded |
| Service | none declared |
source trail
Generated from repository data
This page is generated by av-web from the private package SQLite artifact built by scripts/generate-pkg-sqlite.py.
Combined YAML source
View the package source record on GitHub.
Used sources
- Geiger risk classifier
- Nucleus package database
- curated configuration and credential file locations
- curated package history
- pkgdb category and tag curation