macOS
Homebrewverified · 100%
brew install waffleprovider-native install command
brew / rank 11694
Install waffle with Homebrew
C library for selecting an OpenGL API and window system at runtime. Version 1.8.3 via Homebrew; verified 2026-06-29.
install
Additional install commands
overview
Package summary
C library for selecting an OpenGL API and window system at runtime
Project links
Commands and aliases
- wflinfo
history
Project history and usage
Waffle is a small freedesktop.org graphics infrastructure library rather than an end-user application. Its purpose is to let a program choose an OpenGL API and native window-system binding at runtime, so the same test or tool can run against combinations such as GLX, X11/EGL, Wayland/EGL, GBM, surfaceless EGL, or experimental non-Linux backends.
Project history
The project was public in the Mesa and Piglit orbit by 2012: the Waffle website records a presentation by Chad Versace at the 2012 X Developer's Conference, and the October 2012 Waffle 1.1.0 announcement described the library as API- and ABI-compatible with Waffle 1.0 while adding GBM, experimental Android support, and manpage documentation.
Waffle's upstream home is now the Mesa namespace on freedesktop.org GitLab. The older GitHub organization is kept as an archive and points contributors to the freedesktop.org repository, which matches Waffle's role as plumbing for Mesa-adjacent graphics testing rather than a standalone developer product.
How it is used
Waffle is mainly used by graphics tests and diagnostics that need to create GL contexts without committing at build time to one window system. The accompanying `wflinfo` command is the visible CLI entry point, while library consumers use the C API to initialize a platform, choose a config, create contexts and windows, and, on selected platforms, retrieve backing native objects when they need behavior outside Waffle's abstraction.
Why package nerds care
Its significance is niche but real: Waffle sits in the awkward layer between OpenGL APIs and native window systems, exactly where Mesa and Piglit need repeatable testing across driver stacks. Package maintainers tend to encounter it as a dependency of graphics conformance and regression-test tooling, not as a general-purpose GUI library.
Timeline
- 2012: Waffle was presented at XDC 2012 and Waffle 1.1.0 was announced on the freedesktop.org Piglit and Mesa mailing lists.
- 2012 onward: the project focused on enabling Piglit to select GL API and window-system combinations at runtime.
- 2020s: development and issue tracking live under the Mesa project on freedesktop.org GitLab, with GitHub preserved as an archive.
Related projects
- Piglit is the closest related project: Waffle's README and website both describe enabling Piglit, Mesa's OpenGL test suite, as the immediate goal. APITrace is also named in the README as a future-facing related tool for recording and replaying OpenGL calls across systems.
Sources
security posture
Risk level: yellow
generalized runtime or code generation signal.
Risk classifier
yellow risk · medium confidence · runtime
Why
- generalized runtime or code generation signal
Signals
- text:runtime
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
wflinfo | 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 version1.8.3
manager updated2026-06-29
local dataunknown
upstreamnot available
latest detectednot detected
- okNo freshness warnings were generated.
install metadata
Package metadata
| Package key | brew:waffle |
|---|---|
| Version | 1.8.3 |
| Package manager | Homebrew |
| Homepage | https://waffle.freedesktop.org/ |
| Last updated | 2026-06-29T23:33:58Z |
| Pulse | updated |
| Bottle | not recorded |
| Service | none declared |
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.
Used sources
- Geiger risk classifier
- Nucleus package database
- curated package history
- pkgdb category and tag curation