# Install src with Homebrew, dnf

Simple revision control: RCS reloaded with a modern UI. Version 1.45 via Homebrew; verified 2026-05-20. Also installable with dnf: sudo dnf install src.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:src
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install src
```

  Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata

### Linux

- dnf (92%):

```sh
sudo dnf install src
```

  Evidence: Fedora Rawhide package metadata: src from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/07190dc5ae9f35ae73866675fed6d95fe6e8d9fe22c9d7cdf85862cb2ed24a4c-primary.xml.zst

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:src
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 1.45
- **Source summary:** Simple revision control: RCS reloaded with a modern UI
- **Homepage:** <http://www.catb.org/~esr/src/>
- **Last updated:** 2026-05-20T15:38:01Z
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T19:37:03+00:00

## Executables

- src (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 1.45
## Project history and usage

`src` is Eric S. Raymond's simple revision-control tool for solo, single-file projects. It wraps old RCS and SCCS storage ideas in a more modern command-line interface for people who want version history for loose scripts, HOWTOs, and small files without creating a full Git repository.

### Project history

The official manual describes SRC as simple revision control for single-file projects by solo developers and authors, explicitly calling it a modernization of RCS. The FAQ frames the tool as a response to modern VCS tools that are powerful for multi-user, multi-file projects but awkward for small private files.

SRC is built on top of RCS rather than reimplementing RCS master-file internals. It can also operate on SCCS repositories, mostly for legacy compatibility, while its default storage directory is `.src`.

### Adoption history

The package metadata in this batch shows `src` available through Homebrew and Fedora/DNF. That is a modest but meaningful packaging footprint for a niche developer tool: it is not trying to replace Git, but package managers make it easy to install alongside RCS for the narrow single-file use case.

### How it is used

Typical use is deliberately small: initialize a directory, commit one or more files, inspect status and logs, and retrieve previous revisions. The manual documents RCS/SCCS interoperability, import from RCS or SCCS directories, and commands shaped to feel familiar to Subversion, Mercurial, and Git users.

### Why package nerds care

`src` is interesting to package nerds because it is a compatibility-layer package around very old Unix version-control machinery. It preserves the single-file workflow that RCS was good at while exposing a friendlier CLI, so the packaging question is less about ecosystem size and more about keeping a classic Unix niche installable.

### Timeline

- 1970s-1980s: SCCS and RCS established the single-file version-control lineage that SRC later wraps.
- 2010s: SRC 1.x series published with a public GitLab repository and CATB-hosted documentation.
- 2020s: SRC documentation continues to describe RCS as the recommended backend and SCCS as legacy support.

### Related projects

- SRC is directly related to RCS and SCCS, and its FAQ compares its command style with Subversion, Mercurial, and Git.

### Sources

- <http://www.catb.org/~esr/src/FAQ.html>
- <http://www.catb.org/~esr/src/src.html>
- <https://gitlab.com/esr/src>
- source_facts.package-manager


## Security Notes

No matching local secret-handling manifest was found for src. Nucleus package metadata is still published here so future coverage has a stable package URL.


## Other Package-Manager Records

- dnf - src - 1.38-6.fc45: normalized package name match | Fedora Rawhide package metadata: src from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/07190dc5ae9f35ae73866675fed6d95fe6e8d9fe22c9d7cdf85862cb2ed24a4c-primary.xml.zst | Simple Revision Control | https://gitlab.com/esr/src


## Combined YAML source

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