# Install badread with Homebrew Long read simulator that can imitate many types of read problems. Version 0.4.2 via Homebrew; verified 2026-04-22. ## Install ```sh sudo av install brew:badread ``` Additional install commands: ### macOS - Homebrew (100%): ```sh brew install badread ``` Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata ## Package facts - **Package key:** brew:badread - **Package manager:** Homebrew - **Package manager page:** - **Version:** 0.4.2 - **Source summary:** Long read simulator that can imitate many types of read problems - **Homepage:** - **Repository:** - **Upstream docs:** - **License:** GPL-3.0-or-later - **Source archive:** - **Last updated:** 2026-04-22T09:09:57Z - **Generated:** 2026-07-10T07:20:53+00:00 ## Executables - badread (cli) - badread (alias) ## Dependencies - numpy - python@3.14 - scipy ## Install behavior - Post-install hook: not defined - Bottle: available on arm64_linux, arm64_sequoia, arm64_sonoma, arm64_tahoe, sonoma, x86_64_linux ## Freshness - Page generated: 2026-07-10 - Package-manager version: 0.4.2 - Package-manager updated: 2026-04-22 - Local data: ok - Upstream repository: https://github.com/rrwick/Badread - Upstream latest detected: v0.4.2 (current) ## Project history and usage Badread is a bioinformatics CLI for simulating error-prone long sequencing reads. It is historically notable less as a large software platform and more as a citable research tool that gave developers controlled ways to stress-test long-read assemblers and analysis pipelines. ### Project history The Badread GitHub repository was created in June 2018, with the first v0.1.0 GitHub release in July 2018. The README says Badread was made to test tools that take long reads as input by letting users control read problems such as chimeras, low-quality regions, systematic basecalling errors, junk reads, random reads, adapters, glitches, and quality-score models. Badread was published in the Journal of Open Source Software in 2019 as 'Badread: simulation of error-prone long reads' with DOI 10.21105/joss.01316. That gave the package a stable academic citation path alongside its command-line distribution. The project continued to track long-read practice in later releases, with README examples for older Oxford Nanopore reads, newer Nanopore R10.4.1-style settings, PacBio HiFi-style reads, and configurable error and qscore models. ### Adoption history Badread's adoption is mainly in computational biology workflows where developers need reproducible fake FASTQ data. Its packaging in Homebrew makes it easy for macOS bioinformatics users to install without manually cloning the repository, while the README also documents pip installation directly from GitHub. The JOSS publication and Zenodo DOI made Badread easier to cite in papers and benchmarking notes than many informal simulator scripts. GitHub release activity from 2018 through 2026 shows a maintained niche tool rather than a frozen paper artifact. ### How it is used Typical usage is badread simulate with a reference FASTA and requested quantity, piping FASTQ output through gzip. Users tune read length, identity, error model, qscore model, adapter sequences, chimeras, glitches, junk reads, random reads, and seeds. The README emphasizes control over realism: users can deliberately make reads very bad, pretty good, very good, or platform-like in order to test how downstream tools react. ### Why package nerds care Badread matters to package nerds because it is a compact example of research software that deserves normal CLI packaging: it has a paper, DOI, reproducible command-line interface, domain data models, and a long tail of users who may just need the executable in a workflow. It also shows why scientific packages often live awkwardly between GitHub, pip, Homebrew, and citation systems: the code, docs, releases, and scholarly identity all matter. ### Timeline - 2018: Badread GitHub repository created and v0.1.0 released. - 2019: Badread published in the Journal of Open Source Software. - 2021: v0.2.0 released. - 2023: v0.3.0 and v0.4.0 released. - 2026: v0.4.2 released. ### Related projects - Badread is related to long-read sequencing platforms and models such as Oxford Nanopore and PacBio. - The README compares Badread with other long-read simulators and notes dependencies such as Edlib, NumPy, SciPy, and Matplotlib. ### Sources - - - - - source_facts.package-manager ## Security Notes narrow executable package without higher-risk signals. - **Geiger risk:** green / low - narrow executable package without higher-risk signals ## Source Database Details - **Source Database:** Homebrew formula API - **Tap:** homebrew/core - **Full Name:** badread - **Version Scheme:** 0 - **Revision:** 0 - **Bottle Stable Root URL:** - **Deprecated:** no - **Disabled:** no - **Keg Only:** no - **URL Keys:** stable ## Related links - [Source-control packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/source-control-tools/) - Belongs to a source-control command family. - [Terminal utility packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/terminal-utilities/) - Matched terminal and command-line workflow metadata. - [Networking and protocol packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/networking-protocol-tools/) - Matched network, protocol, or remote-service metadata. - [Scientific computing packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/scientific-computing-tools/) - Matched scientific computing metadata. - [numpy](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/numpy/) - Runtime dependency declared by Homebrew. - [python@3.14](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/python-3-14/) - Runtime dependency declared by Homebrew. - [adapterremoval](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/adapterremoval/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: bioinformatics, cli, science, sequencing. - [alevin-fry](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/alevin-fry/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: bioinformatics, cli, science, sequencing. - [bbtools](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/bbtools/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: bioinformatics, cli, science, sequencing. - [bowtie2](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/bowtie2/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: bioinformatics, cli, science, sequencing. - [btllib](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/btllib/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: bioinformatics, cli, science, sequencing. - [cutadapt](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/cutadapt/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: bioinformatics, cli, science, sequencing. - [fastp](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/fastp/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: bioinformatics, cli, science, sequencing. - [fastq-tools](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/fastq-tools/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: bioinformatics, cli, science, sequencing. - [flye](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/flye/) - Both packages touch the same language runtime or ecosystem. Shared terms: bioinformatics, cli, long, python, python-3-14. - [kraken2](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/kraken2/) - Both packages touch the same language runtime or ecosystem. Shared terms: bioinformatics, cli, python, python-3-14, science. ## Combined YAML source View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/badread.yml](https://github.com/automic-vault/db/blob/main/combined/badread.yml) ## Sources - Nucleus package database - Geiger risk classifier - package-page enrichment - curated package history - package version freshness - av.db category and tag curation - package relationship graph - cross-ecosystem install command graph