# Install gptsync with Homebrew

GPT and MBR partition tables synchronization tool. Version 0.14 via Homebrew; verified from local package data.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:gptsync
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install gptsync
```

  Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:gptsync
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 0.14
- **Source summary:** GPT and MBR partition tables synchronization tool
- **Homepage:** <https://refit.sourceforge.net/>
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T19:37:03+00:00

## Executables

- gptsync (alias)
- showpart (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 0.14
## Project history and usage

gptsync is the GPT-to-MBR partition table synchronization utility from the rEFIt EFI boot toolkit. Its niche is Intel Mac dual-boot maintenance, where legacy BIOS-style operating systems expected an MBR view of a disk that was really partitioned with GPT.

### Project history

rEFIt began as an EFI boot menu and maintenance toolkit for Intel Macs. Its version history records a first public release on 2006-03-02 and says version 0.7, released on 2006-05-14, added a tool to synchronize GPT and MBR partition tables.

The rEFIt project later stopped active maintenance and pointed users toward rEFInd, a fork. gptsync remains packaged separately in Homebrew as a small system utility extracted from that older rEFIt codebase.

### Adoption history

gptsync mattered most during the Intel Mac and Boot Camp era, when hybrid GPT/MBR layouts were a practical compatibility layer for booting Windows or other legacy systems.

The tool's adoption is therefore narrow but historically useful: it appears in package managers because disk-repair and dual-boot workflows sometimes need the utility without installing the full rEFIt boot menu.

### How it is used

The utility reads a device's GPT partition table and synchronizes the legacy MBR view. It is a low-level disk tool, so usage belongs in recovery, bootloader, or dual-boot maintenance contexts rather than routine application workflows.

### Why package nerds care

gptsync is a classic small extracted utility: package managers keep it around because it solves a specific historical systems problem and has almost no substitute inside general application stacks.

### Timeline

- 2006-03-02: rEFIt 0.1 first public release.
- 2006-05-14: rEFIt 0.7 adds the GPT/MBR synchronization tool.
- 2007-03-25: rEFIt 0.9 improves gptsync filesystem and partition handling.
- 2010-03-07: rEFIt 0.14 adds support for additional partition types in gptsync.
- 2013-03-29: rEFIt site states the project is no longer actively maintained and points users to rEFInd.

### Related projects

- rEFIt is the parent EFI boot menu and maintenance toolkit.
- rEFInd is the successor fork named by the rEFIt project page.
- GPT fdisk solves adjacent GPT and hybrid-MBR maintenance problems, but it is a separate project.

### Sources

- <https://refit.sourceforge.net/>
- <https://refit.sourceforge.net/doc/c3s3_config.html>
- <https://refit.sourceforge.net/history.html>
- <https://sourceforge.net/p/refit/code/HEAD/tree/>


## Security Notes

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

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


## Combined YAML source

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


## Sources

- pkg.so package database
- Geiger risk classifier
- curated package history
- pkgdb category and tag curation
- cross-ecosystem install command graph