# Install monetdb with Homebrew, apk, Nix

Column-store database. Version 11.55.5 via Homebrew; verified from local package data. Also installable with nix: nix profile install nixpkgs#monetdb.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:monetdb
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install monetdb
```

  Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata

### Linux

- apk (92%):

```sh
sudo apk add monetdb
```

  Evidence: Alpine Linux edge package indexes: monetdb from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/testing/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz

- Nix (92%):

```sh
nix profile install nixpkgs#monetdb
```

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

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:monetdb
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 11.55.5
- **Source summary:** Column-store database
- **Homepage:** <https://www.monetdb.org/>
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T19:37:03+00:00

## Executables

- mclient (alias)
- mclient-11.55.5 (alias)
- monetdb (alias)
- monetdb-11.55.5 (alias)
- monetdbd (alias)
- monetdbd-11.55.5 (alias)
- mserver5 (alias)
- mserver5-11.55.5 (alias)
- msqldump (alias)
- msqldump-11.55.5 (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 11.55.5
## Project history and usage

MonetDB is a long-running open-source column-store relational database rooted in database-architecture research at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica in the Netherlands. The MonetDB history page says the team has been pioneering column-store technology since 1993, building on earlier CWI database-kernel work and a Binary Association Table storage model aimed at analytical and scientific data problems.

### Project history

Its early industrial path ran through Data Distilleries, a CWI spin-off that used early MonetDB implementations in an analytical customer-relationship suite before SPSS acquired the company in 2003. MonetDB version 4 moved into the open-source domain in 2004, with major additions including SQL:2003 support and APIs for PHP, JDBC, Python, Perl, ODBC, and Ruby; an XQuery front end followed in 2005. Later phases froze the older MonetDB 4 kernel, pushed the columnar approach deeper into MonetDB 5 and SQL layers, and added embedded use from R, Python, Java, and C as an SQLite-like analytical engine.

### Adoption history

CWI describes MonetDB as a DBMS for high-performance complex queries over large datasets, often with hundreds of columns and millions of rows, and names domains such as CRM, telecommunications, healthcare, astronomy, remote sensing, biology, and seismology. A 2012 IEEE Data Engineering Bulletin paper summary describes MonetDB as an open-source column-store for analytics over large collections of data, used in health care, telecommunications, scientific databases, and data-management research, with more than 10,000 monthly downloads at that time.

### How it is used

As a package-manager entry, MonetDB is not a generic embedded library: Homebrew installs server and client tools such as mserver5, monetdbd, monetdb, mclient, and msqldump. It fills the niche of an analytical SQL column store for local experimentation, research workloads, and systems where a mature open-source columnar RDBMS is preferable to a cloud warehouse or row-store database.

### Sources

- <https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/monetdb>
- <https://stratos.seas.harvard.edu/publications/monetdb-two-decades-research-column-oriented-database-architectures>
- <https://www.cwi.nl/en/results/software/monetdb-high-performance-query-processing-against-very-large-databases/>
- <https://www.monetdb.org/about-us/monetdb-history/>


## Security Notes

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

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


## Configuration and credential file locations

These source-backed paths show where this package keeps local settings or durable credentials. Automic Vault can use them as review targets for secret scanning, migration, and command approval.


## Configuration files

- Unix: .monetdb, $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/monetdb, ~/.config/monetdb, ~/.monetdb, <dbfarm>/.merovingian_properties

## Credential files

- Unix: .monetdb, $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/monetdb, ~/.config/monetdb, ~/.monetdb, <dbfarm>/.merovingian_properties
## Other Package-Manager Records

- Nix - monetdb: normalized package name match | nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/mo/monetdb/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1
- apk - monetdb - 11.33.11-r4: normalized package name match | Alpine Linux edge package indexes: monetdb from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/testing/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz | Column-oriented database management system | https://www.monetdb.org/Home
- apk - monetdb-dev - 11.33.11-r4: normalized package name match | Alpine Linux edge package indexes: monetdb-dev from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/testing/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz | Column-oriented database management system (development files) | https://www.monetdb.org/Home
- apk - monetdb-doc - 11.33.11-r4: normalized package name match | Alpine Linux edge package indexes: monetdb-doc from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/testing/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz | Column-oriented database management system (documentation) | https://www.monetdb.org/Home


## Combined YAML source

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


## Sources

- pkg.so package database
- Geiger risk classifier
- curated configuration and credential file locations
- curated package history
- pkgdb category and tag curation
- external package-manager database matches
- cross-ecosystem install command graph