# Install julius with Homebrew, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, zypper

Two-pass large vocabulary continuous speech recognition engine. Version 4.6 via Homebrew; verified from local package data. Also installable with debian: sudo apt install julius.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:julius
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install julius
```

  Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata

- MacPorts (94%):

```sh
sudo port install julius
```

  Evidence: MacPorts ports tree: audio/julius/Portfile from https://api.github.com/repos/macports/macports-ports/git/trees/master?recursive=1

### Linux

- Debian apt (92%):

```sh
sudo apt install julius
```

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

- dnf (92%):

```sh
sudo dnf install julius
```

  Evidence: Fedora Rawhide package metadata: julius from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/07190dc5ae9f35ae73866675fed6d95fe6e8d9fe22c9d7cdf85862cb2ed24a4c-primary.xml.zst

- Nix (92%):

```sh
nix profile install nixpkgs#julius
```

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

- pacman (92%):

```sh
sudo pacman -S julius
```

  Evidence: Arch Linux sync databases: julius from https://geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com/extra/os/x86_64/extra.db.tar.gz

- zypper (92%):

```sh
sudo zypper install julius
```

  Evidence: openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: julius from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/50b07339cb64c8ed4091bdbabddadc1ff5737b090e478818a195b40d8a3292861a879139b4a3987c31109699fde9fbf4a716367ddf4eef77da75f96e3193d6ed-primary.xml.zst

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:julius
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 4.6
- **Source summary:** Two-pass large vocabulary continuous speech recognition engine
- **Homepage:** <https://github.com/julius-speech/julius>
- **Repository:** <https://github.com/julius-speech/julius>
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T19:37:03+00:00

## Executables

- accept_check (alias)
- adinrec (alias)
- adintool (alias)
- binlm2arpa (alias)
- dfa_determinize (alias)
- dfa_minimize (alias)
- generate (alias)
- generate-ngram (alias)
- gram2sapixml.pl (alias)
- jclient.pl (alias)
- jcontrol (alias)
- julius (alias)
- libjulius-config (alias)
- libsent-config (alias)
- mkbingram (alias)
- mkbinhmm (alias)
- mkbinhmmlist (alias)
- mkdfa.pl (alias)
- mkdfa.py (alias)
- mkfa (alias)
- mkgshmm (alias)
- mkss (alias)
- nextword (alias)
- yomi2voca.pl (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 4.6
## Project history and usage

Julius is an open-source large vocabulary continuous speech recognition decoder. It is a research-oriented command-line engine for real-time LVCSR using N-gram language models, HMM acoustic models, grammar recognition, and later DNN-based decoding support.

### Project history

The Julius README traces development to Japanese LVCSR research beginning in 1997, followed by work under the IPA Japanese dictation toolkit project from 1997 to 2000, the Continuous Speech Recognition Consortium from 2000 to 2003, and the Interactive Speech Technology Consortium.

The 2001 Eurospeech paper presented Julius as a two-pass real-time LVCSR decoder for researchers and developers. It emphasized tree lexicons, N-gram factoring, cross-word context dependency handling, beam search, Gaussian pruning, and standard model formats.

The modern GitHub README identifies Akinobu Lee as the main developer and maintainer, with copyright history across Kawahara Lab, the Julius project team, IPA, and Shikano Lab.

### Adoption history

Julius became a standard open research engine in Japanese speech recognition because it provided a shared baseline decoder and dictation kits rather than just a paper implementation. The README describes companion assets such as the Japanese Dictation Kit, Recognition Grammar Toolkit, Speech Segmentation Toolkit, and Prompter.

The engine's package-manager presence across Homebrew, Debian, Fedora, MacPorts, Nix, Arch, Ubuntu, and openSUSE reflects its long life as infrastructure for speech experiments, demos, and legacy LVCSR pipelines.

### How it is used

Julius is usually run with configuration files such as `julius.jconf`, `mic.jconf`, and DNN configuration files. Users supply acoustic models, language models, dictionaries, and input settings, then invoke the `julius` command with options such as `-C` and `-dnnconf`.

It supports microphone and file input, N-best output, word graphs, forced alignment, confidence scoring, server mode, grammar recognition, isolated-word recognition, and multi-model decoding in one thread.

### Why package nerds care

Julius is package-nerd interesting because it packages a classic academic decoder with a large toolbelt of helper commands, model formats, and sample configuration files. Installing it gives access not only to `julius`, but also to grammar, dictionary, and model conversion utilities.

It also illustrates how research software survives in Unix package sets: the core C decoder remains useful when paired with separately maintained acoustic and language models.

### Timeline

- 1997: Development began as research software for Japanese LVCSR.
- 2001: Julius was published at Eurospeech as an open-source real-time LVCSR engine.
- 2015-09-24: GitHub release v4.3.1 was published.
- 2019-01-02: GitHub release v4.5 was published.
- 2020-09-02: GitHub release v4.6 was published.

### Related projects

- The Julius project maintains the Japanese Dictation Kit, Recognition Grammar Toolkit, Speech Segmentation Toolkit, and Prompter repositories.
- The README notes interoperability with model toolkits and formats such as HTK, SRILM, ARPA N-gram language models, and HTK ASCII HMM definitions.
- Julius belongs to the older open LVCSR lineage alongside research systems such as HTK-based recognizers and VoxForge model workflows.

### Sources

- <https://github.com/julius-speech/julius>
- <https://github.com/julius-speech/julius/releases>
- <https://www.isca-archive.org/eurospeech_2001/lee01c_eurospeech.html>


## Security Notes

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

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

## Other Package-Manager Records

- Debian apt - julius - 1.7.0+dfsg-3: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: julius from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/contrib/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | Re-implementation of the Caesar III engine | https://github.com/bvschaik/julius
- Nix - julius: normalized package name match | nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/ju/julius/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1
- Ubuntu apt - julius - 4.2.2-0ubuntu6: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: julius from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/multiverse/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | speech recognition engine | http://julius.sourceforge.jp/en_index.php
- Ubuntu apt - libjulius-dev - 4.2.2-0ubuntu6: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: libjulius-dev from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/multiverse/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | speech recognition engine - development headers | http://julius.sourceforge.jp/en_index.php
- dnf - julius - 4.6-12.fc45: normalized package name match | Fedora Rawhide package metadata: julius from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/07190dc5ae9f35ae73866675fed6d95fe6e8d9fe22c9d7cdf85862cb2ed24a4c-primary.xml.zst | Large vocabulary continuous speech recognition (LVCSR) decoder software | https://github.com/julius-speech/julius
- dnf - julius-devel - 4.6-12.fc45: normalized package name match | Fedora Rawhide package metadata: julius-devel from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/07190dc5ae9f35ae73866675fed6d95fe6e8d9fe22c9d7cdf85862cb2ed24a4c-primary.xml.zst | Development files and libraries for libjulius and libsent | https://github.com/julius-speech/julius
- dnf - julius-japanese-models - 4.6-12.fc45: normalized package name match | Fedora Rawhide package metadata: julius-japanese-models from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/07190dc5ae9f35ae73866675fed6d95fe6e8d9fe22c9d7cdf85862cb2ed24a4c-primary.xml.zst | Julius Japanese language model and acoustic models | https://github.com/julius-speech/julius
- pacman - julius - 1.8.0-1: normalized package name match | Arch Linux sync databases: julius from https://geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com/extra/os/x86_64/extra.db.tar.gz | An enhanced re-implementation of Caesar III | https://github.com/bvschaik/julius
- zypper - julius - 1.8.0-1.6: normalized package name match | openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: julius from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/50b07339cb64c8ed4091bdbabddadc1ff5737b090e478818a195b40d8a3292861a879139b4a3987c31109699fde9fbf4a716367ddf4eef77da75f96e3193d6ed-primary.xml.zst | An open source re-implementation of Caesar III | https://github.com/bvschaik/julius
- MacPorts - julius: normalized package name match | MacPorts ports tree: audio/julius/Portfile from https://api.github.com/repos/macports/macports-ports/git/trees/master?recursive=1


## Combined YAML source

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