# Install menhir with Homebrew, apt

LR(1) parser generator for the OCaml programming language. Version 20260209 via Homebrew; verified 2026-07-13. Also installable with debian: sudo apt install libmenhir-ocaml-dev.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:menhir
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install menhir
```

  Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata

### Linux

- Debian apt (92%):

```sh
sudo apt install menhir
```

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

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:menhir
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 20260209
- **Source summary:** LR(1) parser generator for the OCaml programming language
- **Homepage:** <http://cristal.inria.fr/~fpottier/menhir>
- **Last updated:** 2026-07-13T05:11:30Z
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T19:37:03+00:00

## Executables

- menhir (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 20260209
## Project history and usage

Menhir is an LR(1) parser generator for OCaml, created in 2005 by François Pottier and Yann Régis-Gianas. Its manual presents it as a generator that turns grammar specifications plus semantic actions into parsers, based on Knuth's LR(1) construction and inspired by yacc, ML-Yacc, and ocamlyacc while adding more modern capabilities.

### Project history

The project history is unusually well documented in its README. Régis-Gianas contributed the early front-end for parsing and transforming .mly grammar files, while Pottier contributed the LR(1) construction algorithms, conflict explanations, and first OCaml code backend. A table backend using menhirLib followed in 2008 with Jane Street Capital funding through the OCaml Summer Project. Jacques-Henri Jourdan implemented a Coq-table backend in 2011. Frédéric Bour contributed the incremental API, inspection API, attributes, and MenhirSdk between 2014 and 2017. The build moved to Dune in 2019, and Émile Trotignon and Pottier implemented a new efficient, well-typed code backend around StackLang in 2021.

### How it is used

Menhir's ecosystem role is as the richer successor-style tool for OCaml parser generation. OCaml developers feed it .mly grammar files and receive parser .ml/.mli output, either as standalone generated code or table-backed parsers linked with MenhirLib. The opam package page lists many reverse users, including compiler, verification, parsing, and developer-tooling packages, which matches its place as infrastructure for OCaml language tooling.

### Sources

- <https://gallium.inria.fr/~fpottier/menhir/manual.html>
- <https://github.com/LexiFi/menhir>
- <https://inbox.ci.dev/caml-list/20051215084616.GC1966%40yquem.inria.fr/>
- <https://ocaml.org/p/menhir/20200123>


## Security Notes

generalized runtime or code generation signal.

- **Geiger risk:** yellow / medium
- generalized runtime or code generation signal

## Other Package-Manager Records

- Debian apt - libmenhir-ocaml-dev - 20240715+ds-1+b2: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: libmenhir-ocaml-dev from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | Menhir library for OCaml | https://gallium.inria.fr/~fpottier/menhir/
- Debian apt - menhir - 20240715+ds-1+b2: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: menhir from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | Parser generator for OCaml | https://gallium.inria.fr/~fpottier/menhir/
- Debian apt - menhir-doc - 20240715+ds-1: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: menhir-doc from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | Documentation of the Menhir parser generator for OCaml | https://gallium.inria.fr/~fpottier/menhir/
- Ubuntu apt - libmenhir-ocaml-dev - 20231231+ds-1: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: libmenhir-ocaml-dev from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | Menhir library for OCaml | https://gallium.inria.fr/~fpottier/menhir/
- Ubuntu apt - menhir - 20231231+ds-1: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: menhir from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | Parser generator for OCaml | https://gallium.inria.fr/~fpottier/menhir/
- Ubuntu apt - menhir-doc - 20231231+ds-1: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: menhir-doc from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | Documentation of the Menhir parser generator for OCaml | https://gallium.inria.fr/~fpottier/menhir/


## Combined YAML source

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