install

Additional install commands

macOS

Homebrewverified · 100%

brew install ngspice

provider-native install command

overview

Package summary

Spice circuit simulator

Project links

Homepage

Commands and aliases

ngspice

history

Project history and usage

ngspice is the open-source continuation of the Berkeley SPICE circuit-simulation lineage. It is a command-line and library-capable simulator for analog, digital, mixed-signal, and mixed-level electronic circuits, with a long release history and broad packaging across Unix-like systems, Windows channels, and EDA workflows.

Project history

The ngspice manual says the project is an update of Spice3f5, the last Berkeley release of the Spice3 simulator family, developed to add features and fix bugs. The same manual describes the project as assembled from Spice3f5, XSPICE, CIDER, and original ngspice material, with Paolo Nenzi's first manual preface dated March 24, 2001.

The project inherited Spice3 and CIDER from the University of California at Berkeley and XSPICE from Georgia Tech. Its early 2000s 'ng-spice-rework' releases show the transition from cleanup and bug fixing into a simulator with XSPICE mixed-signal support, CIDER mixed-level simulation, model updates, Windows/MINGW support, and broader portability.

Release 46 was distributed in March 2026; the version 46 manual is dated March 31, 2026. The SourceForge download page listed ngspice-46 as the latest release, and Homebrew packaged stable version 46 from SourceForge.

Adoption history

ngspice is the significant package in this batch. It is packaged by Homebrew, MacPorts, Debian/Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, Nix, openSUSE, Chocolatey, Scoop, and Alpine-family repositories in the av.db input. Homebrew analytics on July 1, 2026 reported 2,500 install-on-request events over 365 days, and SourceForge showed weekly downloads for release 46 and old releases.

Its adoption is helped by compatibility rather than novelty. The project advertises SPICE compatibility, support for PSPICE/LTSPICE model parameters and netlists for discrete circuits, HSPICE device libraries from foundry PDKs for integrated circuits, and third-party schematic/simulation front ends. That makes it a common open simulation engine under GUI and scripted EDA workflows.

How it is used

The normal package-nerd use is to install `ngspice`, feed it a SPICE netlist from the command line, run DC, AC, transient, noise, pole-zero, sensitivity, distortion, S-parameter, or mixed-signal analyses, and inspect plots or raw output files. More advanced users build it as a shared library or integrate it through tools such as KiCad, Xschem, Qucs-S, PySpice, or Tcl/Tk-related tooling.

The practical reason people care about the package is that it is the free, scriptable SPICE engine that package managers can ship everywhere. It sits in a lineage older than most package ecosystems, but remains active because open PDKs, Verilog-A/OpenVAF model loading, mixed-signal code models, and simulator-library embedding keep generating new use cases.

Timeline

{'date': '2000-11-04', 'event': 'ng-spice-rework-13 release listed enhancements and bug fixes.'}
{'date': '2001-03-24', 'event': 'Paolo Nenzi dated the first ngspice manual preface.'}
{'date': '2004-01-27', 'event': 'ng-spice-rework-15 incorporated XSPICE, CIDER, numparam, model updates, and examples.'}
{'date': '2026-03-31', 'event': 'Version 46 manual date.'}

Related projects

Berkeley SPICE
Spice3f5
XSPICE
CIDER
KiCad
Xschem
Qucs-S
PySpice
OpenVAF

Sources

security posture

Risk level: green

narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.

Risk classifier

green risk · low confidence · appliance

Why

narrow executable package without higher-risk signals

Signals

metadata:no-higher-risk-signals

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
`ngspice`	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 version46

manager updated2026-06-25

local dataunknown

upstreamnot available

latest detectednot detected

okNo freshness warnings were generated.

install metadata

Package metadata

Package key	brew:ngspice
Version	46
Package manager	Homebrew
Homepage	https://ngspice.sourceforge.io/
Last updated	2026-06-25T13:37:57+02:00
Pulse	updated
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/ngspice.yml

Used sources

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

Install ngspice with Homebrew