Install netcdf with Homebrew

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository

Commands and aliases

• nc-config
• nccopy
• ncdump
• ncgen
• ncgen3

Project history

The project grew out of Unidata's late-1980s work on a portable scientific data interface. Unidata's history says Glenn Davis developed an early C prototype layered on XDR in early 1988, then an August 1988 workshop settled the Unidata netCDF interface before Davis and Russ Rew implemented the first software. Version 2.0 was announced in October 1991, version 3.3 in May 1997 added a new type-safe C and Fortran interface, and version 3.4 in March 1998 brought initial large-file support and performance work.

Adoption history

Unidata describes netCDF as a community standard for sharing scientific data, with maintained C, C++, Java, and Fortran interfaces and additional interfaces for Python, IDL, MATLAB, R, Ruby, and Perl. Homebrew analytics show the core package's broad dependency role: on July 1, 2026 the formula page listed 90,512 installs over 365 days and 6,249 over 30 days, while only 14,750 of the annual installs were direct installs on request.

How it is used

Users interact with it both as a library and as a CLI toolkit. ncdump prints a netCDF file as CDL text, ncgen turns CDL back into binary netCDF, and nccopy copies files while changing binary format, compression, chunks, or storage settings. Developers use nc-config to discover compiler and linker flags, and higher-level ecosystems build on the C library for Python, Fortran, C++, and analysis tools.

Why package nerds care

For package people, netcdf is the anchor package in a stack that fans out into HDF5, compression libraries, OPeNDAP/curl support, language bindings, climate tools, and HPC I/O packages. A formula bump can ripple into scientific software because the data model is stable but the feature matrix depends on build options such as HDF5, DAP, zstd, and parallel I/O support.

Timeline

• 1988: Glenn Davis developed an early Unidata netCDF C prototype layered on XDR.
• 1988-08: a Unidata workshop agreed on the netCDF interface.
• 1991-10: netCDF 2.0 was announced.
• 1997-05: netCDF 3.3 added a type-safe C and Fortran interface.
• 1998-03: netCDF 3.4 added initial large-file support.
• 2026-02-25: netCDF-C 4.10.0 was released.
• 2026-07-01: Homebrew listed stable version 4.10.0 and 90,512 installs over 365 days.

Related projects

• netcdf-fortran
• netcdf-cxx
• netcdf4-python
• HDF5
• PnetCDF
• NCO

Sources

• https://docs.unidata.ucar.edu/netcdf-c/current/RELEASE_NOTES.html
• https://docs.unidata.ucar.edu/nug/2.0-draft/netcdf_history.html
• https://docs.unidata.ucar.edu/nug/current/netcdf_utilities_guide.html
• https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/netcdf
• https://github.com/Unidata/netcdf-c
• https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/