# Install ratfor with Homebrew, apt

Rational Fortran. Version 1.07 via Homebrew; verified 2026-06-14. Also installable with debian: sudo apt install ratfor.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:ratfor
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install ratfor
```

  Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata

### Linux

- Debian apt (92%):

```sh
sudo apt install ratfor
```

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

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:ratfor
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 1.07
- **Source summary:** Rational Fortran
- **Homepage:** <http://www.dgate.org/ratfor/>
- **Last updated:** 2026-06-14T15:13:45+02:00
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T19:37:03+00:00

## Executables

- ratfor (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 1.07
## Project history and usage

Ratfor, short for Rational FORTRAN, is a preprocessor that translates structured Ratfor source into FORTRAN 77. The maintained Linux Ratfor distribution descends from a public-domain version 1.0 and remains public domain.

### Project history

Ratfor became widely known through Brian Kernighan and P. J. Plauger's classic `Software Tools`, where it provided a more structured notation over portable Fortran. The current Linux Ratfor lineage derives from work attributed to Oz, Ken Yap, W. Bauske of IBM, and the Stanford Exploration Project.

The Linux maintainer converted the implementation to ANSI C, added prototypes and GNU Autoconf support, and released it as 1.01 in 2001. Later releases integrated Debian fixes, repaired the string directive, improved FORTRAN 77 data-statement ordering, and addressed buffer overruns through version 1.07 in 2025.

### Adoption history

Ratfor's durable niche is legacy and educational Fortran tooling. The supplied package metadata records packages in Homebrew, Debian, and Ubuntu, while the official project page distributes source tarballs and RPMs.

### How it is used

A user runs `ratfor` to preprocess Rational FORTRAN into FORTRAN 77, then compiles the generated code with a compatible compiler such as GNU Fortran. It is a translation step rather than a compiler or runtime of its own.

### Why package nerds care

Ratfor is a compact example of source-to-source portability culture: a structured-language layer from the `Software Tools` tradition kept useful by small maintenance releases and distribution patches decades later.

### Timeline

- 1976: Ratfor was used in the published `Software Tools` text.
- 2001: Linux Ratfor 1.01 converted the source to ANSI C and GNU Autoconf.
- 2015: Version 1.03 incorporated Debian changes and a Debian bug fix.
- 2025: Version 1.07 hardened include processing against buffer overruns.

### Related projects

- GNU Fortran can compile Ratfor's FORTRAN 77 output, and the Stanford Exploration Project is part of the ancestry documented for the maintained public-domain implementation.

### Sources

- <https://dgate.org/cgit.cgi/ratfor.git>
- <https://www.dgate.org/ratfor/>
- source_facts.package-manager


## Security Notes

narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.

- **Geiger risk:** green / low
- narrow executable package without higher-risk signals

## Other Package-Manager Records

- Debian apt - ratfor - 1.07-1: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: ratfor from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | Rational Fortran preprocessor for Fortran 77 | http://www.dgate.org/ratfor/
- Ubuntu apt - ratfor - 1.05-2: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: ratfor from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | Rational Fortran preprocessor for Fortran 77 | http://www.dgate.org/ratfor/


## Combined YAML source

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