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Install gnuastro with Homebrew
Astronomical data manipulation and analysis utilities and libraries. Version 0.24 via Homebrew; verified 2026-06-22.
install
Additional install commands
overview
Package summary
Astronomical data manipulation and analysis utilities and libraries
Project links
Commands and aliases
- astarithmetic
- astbuildprog
- astconvertt
- astconvolve
- astcosmiccal
- astcrop
- astfits
- astmatch
- astmkcatalog
- astmkprof
- astnoisechisel
- astquery
- astscript-color-faint-gray
- astscript-ds9-region
- astscript-fits-view
- astscript-pointing-simulate
- astscript-psf-scale-factor
- astscript-psf-select-stars
- astscript-psf-stamp
- astscript-psf-subtract
- astscript-psf-unite
- astscript-radial-profile
- astscript-sort-by-night
- astscript-zeropoint
- astsegment
- aststatistics
- asttable
- astwarp
history
Project history and usage
GNU Astronomy Utilities, usually called Gnuastro, is an official GNU package for astronomical data manipulation and analysis. Unlike a single-purpose astronomy command, it is a suite of command-line programs and libraries with a shared interface for FITS images, tables, catalogs, image arithmetic, convolution, astrometry-aware warping, source detection, segmentation, statistics, and reproducible research workflows.
Project history
Gnuastro was created by Mohammad Akhlaghi and became part of the GNU software ecosystem in the mid-2010s. The GNU project page describes it as an official GNU package and notes that by 2026 it was 11 years old; the page copyright range begins in 2015, and the project presents its GNU coding-standards alignment as central to how astronomers build, inspect, install, and script it.
The project grew out of astronomical image-analysis work and research funding. The manual credits Mohammad Akhlaghi's MEXT-supported graduate work at Tohoku University for the long-term planning that made the idea possible, ERC MUSICOS support at CRAL for a major rewrite into a larger generic collection, and later work at IAC and CEFCA for maturation and user-base growth.
Gnuastro deliberately treats command-line reproducibility as a scientific feature. Its programs share option conventions, Info/manual organization, citation support, and a development workflow on GNU Savannah, so the package functions as both application suite and library platform for building more astronomy tools.
Adoption history
The project page points to package-manager availability, Conda availability, public videos, Matrix rooms, mailing lists, and citation statistics as signs of adoption in astronomy. It is also registered in the Astrophysics Source Code Library, and the project asks researchers to cite Gnuastro papers, program-specific papers, or versioned manual DOIs when it contributes to published work.
Gnuastro's adoption is strongest among researchers who need transparent, scriptable FITS and catalog processing rather than opaque GUI-only pipelines. Its tooling fits Unix pipelines, Makefiles, shell scripts, and reproducible paper workflows where the exact command and version can be archived.
How it is used
Practitioners use tools such as astnoisechisel, astsegment, astmkcatalog, astcrop, astwarp, astfits, asttable, aststatistics, and astarithmetic to process images and tables from the shell. The manual encourages program-specific Info pages, --help output, man pages, and --cite output so users can learn invocation details and record scholarly attribution.
In research workflows, Gnuastro is used for source detection, low-surface-brightness work, catalog generation, image alignment, FITS inspection, table operations, and scripting larger pipelines. Developers can also build against its libraries or use its templates to add new programs inside the project style.
Why package nerds care
Gnuastro is significant because it imports the GNU command-line model into a domain often dominated by large interactive environments. Package maintainers care about it as a serious science stack member with explicit dependencies on GSL, CFITSIO, and WCSLIB, while astronomy users get small composable binaries instead of one monolithic workbench.
Timeline
- 2015: GNU page copyright begins and the project describes Gnuastro as part of the GNU software set.
- 2021: A public ADASS tutorial demonstrated Gnuastro workflows.
- 2024: Manual 0.23 documents acknowledgments, authorship, and institutional support.
- 2026: The GNU page describes Gnuastro as 11 years old and points users to citation tracking and ASCL registration.
Related projects
- Related projects and dependencies include GNU Scientific Library, CFITSIO, WCSLIB, Astrophysics Source Code Library, NASA ADS/SciX, OpenAstronomy community rooms, and astronomy workflow tools built around FITS data.
Sources
security posture
Risk level: green
narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.
Risk classifier
green risk · low confidence · appliance
Why
- narrow executable package without higher-risk signals
Signals
- metadata:no-higher-risk-signals
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.
executables
Installed executables
| Command | Kind | Exposure | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
astarithmetic | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
astbuildprog | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
astconvertt | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
astconvolve | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
astcosmiccal | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
astcrop | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
astfits | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
astmatch | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
astmkcatalog | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
astmkprof | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
astnoisechisel | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
astquery | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
astscript-color-faint-gray | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
astscript-ds9-region | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
astscript-fits-view | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
astscript-pointing-simulate | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
astscript-psf-scale-factor | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
astscript-psf-select-stars | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
astscript-psf-stamp | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
astscript-psf-subtract | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
astscript-psf-unite | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
astscript-radial-profile | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
astscript-sort-by-night | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
astscript-zeropoint | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
astsegment | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
aststatistics | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
asttable | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
astwarp | 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 version0.24
manager updated2026-06-22
local dataunknown
upstreamnot available
latest detectednot detected
- okNo freshness warnings were generated.
install metadata
Package metadata
| Package key | brew:gnuastro |
|---|---|
| Version | 0.24 |
| Package manager | Homebrew |
| Homepage | https://www.gnu.org/software/gnuastro/ |
| Last updated | 2026-06-22T14:03:36-07:00 |
| 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 package history
- pkgdb category and tag curation