install

Additional install commands

macOS

Homebrewverified · 100%

brew install libxo

provider-native install command

overview

Package summary

Allows an application to generate text, XML, JSON, and HTML output

Project links

Commands and aliases

libxo-config
xo
xohtml
xolint
xopo

history

Project history and usage

libxo is a C library from Juniper for emitting traditional text, XML, JSON, and HTML from one set of output calls. It is best known in package culture through FreeBSD's structured-output work.

Project history

The project README explains the central idea: applications call xo_emit with field descriptors, and the selected output style is chosen at runtime. GitHub tag metadata places the 0.1.0 tag at a commit dated 2014-07-30.

The FreeBSD manual page records Phil Shafer as author and says the library was added in FreeBSD 11.0. That adoption moved libxo from a standalone library into the base-system conversation about machine-readable command output.

Adoption history

FreeBSD's adoption gave libxo a practical audience: base utilities could keep human-readable output while adding JSON, XML, or HTML modes for scripts and automation. The package is also available outside FreeBSD for projects that want the same structured-output model.

How it is used

Users generally encounter libxo through commands that accept a libxo output mode or through the xo utility family. Developers use the library when they want one formatting path to serve terminal text and structured data consumers.

Why package nerds care

libxo matters because it is a concrete answer to the long-running Unix problem of parsing human text with fragile awk and sed pipelines. It represents the package-manager-adjacent push toward structured CLI output without abandoning traditional command output.

Timeline

2014: The 0.1.0 GitHub tag points to a commit dated 2014-07-30.
2014: The FreeBSD Ports manual page date for libxo(3) is 2014-12-08.
2016: FreeBSD 11.0 included libxo according to the FreeBSD manual page.
2020s: libxo remains packaged for Homebrew, FreeBSD ports, and multiple Unix-like distributions.

Related projects

FreeBSD base utilities are the most visible related ecosystem. jq and other JSON-processing tools are common downstream companions when libxo-enabled commands emit JSON.

Sources

security posture

Risk level: green

library-like package without higher-risk signals.

Risk classifier

green risk · low confidence · appliance

Why

library-like package without higher-risk signals

Signals

metadata:library-like

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
`libxo-config`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`xo`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`xohtml`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`xolint`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`xopo`	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 version1.7.5

manager updated

local dataunknown

upstreamnot available

latest detectednot detected

okNo freshness warnings were generated.

install metadata

Package metadata

Package key	brew:libxo
Version	1.7.5
Package manager	Homebrew
Homepage	https://juniper.github.io/libxo/libxo-manual.html
Repository	https://github.com/Juniper/libxo
Bottle	not recorded
Service	none declared

package graph

Links come from deterministic package relationships, av.db category and tag curation, ecosystem matches, and package hub membership.

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.

combined/libxo.yml

Used sources

Geiger risk classifier
Nucleus package database
curated package history
pkgdb category and tag curation

Install libxo with Homebrew