# Install ipget with Homebrew, Nix

Retrieve files over IPFS and save them locally. Version 0.13.1 via Homebrew; verified 2026-07-26. Also installable with nix: nix profile install nixpkgs#ipget.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:ipget
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install ipget
```

  Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata

### Linux

- Nix (92%):

```sh
nix profile install nixpkgs#ipget
```

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

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:ipget
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 0.13.1
- **Source summary:** Retrieve files over IPFS and save them locally
- **Homepage:** <https://github.com/ipfs/ipget/>
- **Repository:** <https://github.com/ipfs/ipget>
- **Last updated:** 2026-07-26T04:07:51+02:00
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T19:37:03+00:00

## Executables

- ipget (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 0.13.1
## Project history and usage

ipget is an IPFS command-line downloader: the project describes it as `wget for IPFS`, focused on retrieving files and directory structures from the IPFS network and saving them locally.

### Project history

The GitHub repository was created in 2015 under the IPFS organization. Its README frames the tool as a standalone downloader with its own IPFS node, so users do not need a separate IPFS daemon just to fetch content.

A 2016 1.0.0 roadmap shows the early project goals clearly: reliable retrieval, better first-time user experience, binary distribution, and availability through major package managers.

### Adoption history

ipget's adoption niche is narrower than the core IPFS daemon: it serves users who want a simple fetch command for IPFS content rather than a full node-management workflow.

The project ships binaries through IPFS distribution channels and appears in Homebrew and Nix, matching the roadmap's emphasis on package-manager availability.

### How it is used

Users pass an IPFS path, CID, or IPNS path and optionally choose an output path. The command can use local, spawned, temporary, or fallback node strategies and can display progress.

The package is useful in scripts that need to fetch content-addressed data without teaching the script how to manage a long-running IPFS daemon.

### Why package nerds care

ipget is package-nerdy because it maps the familiar Unix downloader shape onto a content-addressed network. It is smaller in scope than Kubo/go-ipfs, but that is exactly why it fits package-manager culture: install one binary, fetch one thing.

It also documents a common IPFS packaging tension: users want IPFS retrieval as a normal CLI utility, while the underlying protocol normally implies node behavior, peers, and network bootstrapping.

### Timeline

- 2015: GitHub repository created under the IPFS organization.
- 2016: 1.0.0 roadmap calls out reliable builds and retrieval, first-time user experience, binary releases, and package-manager distribution.
- 2023: v0.10.0 release published on GitHub.
- 2026: v0.13.1 release published on GitHub.

### Related projects

- IPFS provides the protocol and network that ipget retrieves from.
- GNU wget is the user-interface analogy cited by the ipget README.
- Kubo/go-ipfs is the fuller IPFS node implementation that ipget avoids requiring for simple downloads.

### Sources

- <https://github.com/ipfs/ipget>
- <https://github.com/ipfs/ipget/issues/18>
- <https://github.com/ipfs/ipget/releases>


## Security Notes

narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.

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

## Other Package-Manager Records

- Nix - ipget: normalized package name match | nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/ip/ipget/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/ipget.yml](https://github.com/mxcl/pkgdb/blob/main/combined/ipget.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