# Install txr with Homebrew

Lisp-like programming language for convenient data munging. Version 302 via Homebrew; verified from local package data.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:txr
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install txr
```

  Evidence: provider-native install command

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:txr
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 302
- **Source summary:** Lisp-like programming language for convenient data munging
- **Homepage:** <https://www.nongnu.org/txr/>
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T00:40:33+00:00

## Executables

- txr (alias)
- txrlisp (alias)
- txrvm (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 302
## Project history and usage

TXR is Kaz Kylheku's programming language and command-line tool for convenient data munging, combining a whole-document pattern language with TXR Lisp.

### Project history

The official homepage says the TXR project started in 2009 and describes it as a pragmatic tool for daily data-munging tasks. Its first identity is the TXR Pattern Language, which matches loosely structured text and binds variables using a template-like syntax; its second identity is TXR Lisp, a full Lisp dialect for data processing and scripting.

Over time TXR grew from a compact extraction language into a large language runtime. The homepage notes a substantial reference manual, an optimizing bytecode compiler, deployable saved executables, low external dependencies, and influences from Common Lisp, Scheme, Awk, shell, Prolog, Ruby, Python, Arc, Clojure, and other languages.

### Adoption history

TXR remains niche, but its official homepage lists packaging by GNU Guix, NixOS, Chimera Linux, Alpine Linux, Void Linux, EasyBuild, and T2 SDE. The supplied Homebrew record also shows Homebrew, Alpine, and Nix formulas, though the upstream page warns users not to use the Homebrew package.

The homepage also documents a practical user history through accepted TXR-based answers on Stack Overflow and Unix StackExchange. That is a useful signal for a package-nerd niche: TXR spread as a sharp text-processing answer to hard one-off problems more than as a mainstream application platform.

### How it is used

TXR is used from the command line for scraping, extracting, transforming, and reporting on arbitrary text. Users can write compact one-liners, pattern files that act like reverse templates, or larger TXR Lisp programs and scripts.

### Why package nerds care

TXR matters in package collections because it sits between awk, sed, Perl, and Lisp: a small executable with a large manual, a distinctive pattern language, and enough runtime to solve messy text problems without pulling in a larger language stack.

### Timeline

- 2009: Official homepage says the TXR project started.
- 2025: Official manpage build is dated July 19, 2025.
- 2026: Official homepage advertises TXR 302 installers and downloads.

### Related projects

- Awk: explicitly compared with TXR's pattern language on the homepage.
- TXR Lisp: the Lisp dialect bundled with the TXR system.
- Rosetta Code solutions in TXR: linked from the official homepage as examples.

### Sources

- <https://www.nongnu.org/txr/>
- <https://www.nongnu.org/txr/txr-manpage.html>
- <https://www.nongnu.org/txr/txr-pattern-language.html>
- source_facts.package-manager


## Security Notes

generalized runtime or code generation signal.

- **Geiger risk:** yellow / medium
- generalized runtime or code generation signal


## Combined YAML source

View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/txr.yml](https://github.com/automic-vault/db/blob/main/combined/txr.yml)


## Sources

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