# Install grap with Homebrew, apt, Nix

Language for typesetting graphs. Version 1.49 via Homebrew; verified from local package data. Also installable with debian: sudo apt install grap.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:grap
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install grap
```

  Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata

### Linux

- Debian apt (92%):

```sh
sudo apt install grap
```

  Evidence: Debian stable package indexes: grap from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz

- Nix (92%):

```sh
nix profile install nixpkgs#grap
```

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

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:grap
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 1.49
- **Source summary:** Language for typesetting graphs
- **Homepage:** <https://www.lunabase.org/~faber/Vault/software/grap/>
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T19:37:03+00:00

## Executables

- grap (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 1.49
## Project history and usage

grap is an implementation of the Bell Labs grap language for typesetting graphs in troff, groff, TeX, and other document-formatting pipelines that can consume pic output.

### Project history

The grap language was specified and first implemented by Brian Kernighan and Jon Bentley at Bell Labs. Ted Faber's implementation was written because groff did not include a free grap implementation, and the repository describes it as an implementation of Kernighan and Bentley's language.

The project preserves a classic Unix documentation workflow: a small language is processed into pic, then included in typeset documents. That lineage places grap beside troff preprocessors such as pic, tbl, and eqn.

### Adoption history

grap is niche but durable because it solves a specific documentation problem for users who still value text-based, reproducible graph descriptions inside Unix typesetting systems. It appears in package managers for people maintaining historical troff/groff workflows or converting old documents.

### How it is used

Users write graph descriptions in grap, run the preprocessor to generate pic, and let pic/troff, groff, or TeX-oriented workflows render the graph in a document.

### Why package nerds care

grap matters to package nerds because it is a preservation-friendly Unix tool: tiny, source-buildable, text-oriented, and useful mainly when the rest of a document toolchain is installed correctly.

### Timeline

- 1986: Bentley and Kernighan published GRAP, a language for typesetting graphs, in Communications of the ACM.
- 1998-2009: Ted Faber copyright range shown in the repository README.
- 2025-04-16: Lunabase project page listed version 1.49.

### Related projects

- pic is the immediate output language and troff/groff are the common formatting environments.
- TeX can participate through workflows that consume pic-generated output.
- The original Bell Labs language is the historical source for Ted Faber's implementation.

### Sources

- <https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/6424.6429>
- <https://github.com/snorerot13/grap>
- <https://www.lunabase.org/~faber/Vault/software/grap/>


## Security Notes

narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.

- **Geiger risk:** green / low
- narrow executable package without higher-risk signals

## Other Package-Manager Records

- Debian apt - grap - 1.49-1: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: grap from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | program for typesetting graphs | https://www.lunabase.org/~faber/Vault/software/grap/
- Nix - grap: normalized package name match | nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/gr/grap/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1
- Ubuntu apt - grap - 1.47-1: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: grap from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | program for typesetting graphs | https://www.lunabase.org/~faber/Vault/software/grap/


## Combined YAML source

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