# Install vilistextum with Homebrew, apt, zypper

HTML to text converter. Version 2.6.9 via Homebrew; verified from local package data. Also installable with debian: sudo apt install vilistextum.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:vilistextum
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install vilistextum
```

  Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata

### Linux

- Debian apt (92%):

```sh
sudo apt install vilistextum
```

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

- zypper (92%):

```sh
sudo zypper install vilistextum
```

  Evidence: openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: vilistextum from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/50b07339cb64c8ed4091bdbabddadc1ff5737b090e478818a195b40d8a3292861a879139b4a3987c31109699fde9fbf4a716367ddf4eef77da75f96e3193d6ed-primary.xml.zst

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:vilistextum
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 2.6.9
- **Source summary:** HTML to text converter
- **Homepage:** <https://bhaak.net/vilistextum/>
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T19:37:03+00:00

## Executables

- vilistextum (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 2.6.9
## Project history and usage

Vilistextum is a small command-line converter from HTML to plain ASCII/text, written by Patric Mueller. Its niche is fault-tolerant conversion of imperfect or quirky HTML into readable terminal, mail, or ebook-oriented text.

### Project history

The upstream homepage identifies release 2.6.9 as dated October 22, 2006 and describes Vilistextum as GPLv2 free software. The tool predates today's browser-based HTML-to-text converters and sits in the older Unix tradition of command filters that read from files or standard input and write transformed text to files or standard output.

### How it is used

Vilistextum is used to strip HTML into readable text while preserving useful structure such as link footnotes, image alt text, selected character/entity conversions, line wrapping, and multibyte character handling. The manual explicitly compares link-footnote output to `lynx -dump`, and the upstream site includes instructions for using it to read HTML mail in gnus or mutt.

### Why package nerds care

Its package significance is modest but real: Vilistextum is one of the tiny, stable, old-school text-conversion utilities that remain useful in scripts, mail readers, and archival workflows because they do one narrow job without a browser runtime.

### Timeline

- 2006-10-22: Upstream release 2.6.9 is published.
- 2006-era documentation: The project documents HTML mail conversion workflows for gnus and mutt and manual options for link footnotes, line shrinking, character conversion, PDA-oriented output, and UTF-8 output when built with multibyte support.

### Sources

- <https://bhaak.net/vilistextum/htmlmail.html>
- <https://bhaak.net/vilistextum/index.html>
- <https://bhaak.net/vilistextum/manual.html>
- <https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Vilistextum>


## 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 - vilistextum - 2.6.9-1.4: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: vilistextum from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | a HTML to text converter | https://bhaak.net/vilistextum/
- Ubuntu apt - vilistextum - 2.6.9-1.3: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: vilistextum from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | a HTML to text converter | https://bhaak.net/vilistextum/
- zypper - vilistextum - 2.6.9-2.5: normalized package name match | openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: vilistextum from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/50b07339cb64c8ed4091bdbabddadc1ff5737b090e478818a195b40d8a3292861a879139b4a3987c31109699fde9fbf4a716367ddf4eef77da75f96e3193d6ed-primary.xml.zst | Convert HTML to text with hyperlink references | https://bhaak.net/vilistextum/index.html


## Combined YAML source

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