# Install enca with Homebrew, apk, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, zypper Charset analyzer and converter. Version 1.22 via Homebrew; verified 2026-04-09. ## Install ```sh sudo av install brew:enca ``` Additional install commands: ### macOS - Homebrew (100%): ```sh brew install enca ``` Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata - MacPorts (94%): ```sh sudo port install enca ``` Evidence: MacPorts ports tree: textproc/enca/Portfile from https://api.github.com/repos/macports/macports-ports/git/trees/master?recursive=1 ### Linux - apk (92%): ```sh sudo apk add enca ``` Evidence: Alpine Linux edge package indexes: enca from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz - Debian apt (92%): ```sh sudo apt install enca ``` Evidence: Debian stable package indexes: enca from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz - dnf (92%): ```sh sudo dnf install enca ``` Evidence: Fedora Rawhide package metadata: enca from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/e5ca8ce900cd68f5419e1c39ae517343100b306336cbaeb70a3c153121d95094-primary.xml.zst - Nix (92%): ```sh nix profile install nixpkgs#enca ``` Evidence: nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/en/enca/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1 - pacman (92%): ```sh sudo pacman -S enca ``` Evidence: Arch Linux sync databases: enca from https://geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com/extra/os/x86_64/extra.db.tar.gz - zypper (92%): ```sh sudo zypper install enca ``` Evidence: openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: enca from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/be8d3611d25469107f32075a1697e69ec57a2b850b42348a658cc671ad5ec2b50760d02c3e59524d50da9a11d5be799bdaffba2e166e8ca8858512e3c0bd665d-primary.xml.zst ## Package facts - **Package key:** brew:enca - **Package manager:** Homebrew - **Package manager page:** - **Version:** 1.22 - **Source summary:** Charset analyzer and converter - **Homepage:** - **Repository:** - **Upstream docs:** - **License:** GPL-2.0-only - **Source archive:** - **Last updated:** 2026-04-09T20:41:11Z - **Generated:** 2026-07-08T18:08:21+00:00 ## Executables - enca (cli) - enconv (cli) - enca (alias) - enconv (alias) ## 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: 2026-07-08 - Package-manager version: 1.22 - Package-manager updated: 2026-04-09 - Local data: ok - Upstream repository: https://github.com/Project-OSS-Revival/enca - info: No cached GitHub release or tag data was available. ## Project history and usage Enca, the Extremely Naive Charset Analyser, is a command-line tool and library for detecting text encodings and converting files through built-in and external converters. Its niche is old-fashioned but still practical: figuring out what character set a text file is using before a script or migration mangles it. ### Project history The README preserves a clear maintenance lineage: original copyright by David Necas from 2000 to 2003, later work by Michal Cihar from 2009 to 2016, and Project OSS Revival maintenance from 2025 to 2026. Michal Cihar's project page lists Enca 1.19 and links the historical `nijel/enca` repository, while the package metadata points to the revived Project OSS Revival repository. ### Adoption history Enca's adoption has been mostly in Unix text-processing and distribution packaging rather than in application-level branding. Its value comes from being scriptable through the `enca` and `enconv` commands and from supporting Central and Eastern European language encodings alongside multibyte encodings. ### How it is used Users run `enca` to guess an input file's encoding and `enconv` or converter integration to rewrite text into another encoding. The README documents optional use of GNU recode, iconv, Perl charset converters, and cstocs, which is exactly the kind of plumbing that made it useful in legacy text cleanup workflows. ### Why package nerds care Enca is a classic small Unix package: autoconf build, C library plus CLI frontend, optional converter backends, and a job that mostly appears when old text meets modern UTF-8 assumptions. It matters to packagers because charset detection and conversion bugs are painful, regional, and hard to replace with a generic shell one-liner. ### Timeline - 2000-2003: Original Enca development credited to David Necas. - 2009-2016: Michal Cihar maintained Enca and published 1.19-era releases. - 2013: Public GitHub repository lineage was present on GitHub. - 2025-2026: Project OSS Revival copyright appears in the revived README. ### Related projects - GNU recode, iconv, Perl Unicode::Map, and cstocs are documented as converter integrations or related tools. - libenca is the library component behind the command-line frontend. ### Sources - - - ## 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:** enca - **Version Scheme:** 0 - **Revision:** 0 - **Head Version:** HEAD - **Bottle Stable Root URL:** - **Deprecated:** no - **Disabled:** no - **Keg Only:** no - **URL Keys:** head, stable ## Other Package-Manager Records - Debian apt - enca - 1.19-3: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: enca from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | Extremely Naive Charset Analyser - binaries | https://cihar.com/software/enca/ - Debian apt - libenca-dev - 1.19-3: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: libenca-dev from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | Extremely Naive Charset Analyser - development files | https://cihar.com/software/enca/ - Debian apt - libenca0 - 1.19-3: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: libenca0 from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | Extremely Naive Charset Analyser - shared library files | https://cihar.com/software/enca/ - Nix - enca: normalized package name match | nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/en/enca/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1 - Ubuntu apt - enca - 1.19-1.1build1: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: enca from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | Extremely Naive Charset Analyser - binaries | http://cihar.com/software/enca/ - Ubuntu apt - libenca-dbg - 1.19-1.1build1: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: libenca-dbg from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | Extremely Naive Charset Analyser - debug files | http://cihar.com/software/enca/ - Ubuntu apt - libenca-dev - 1.19-1.1build1: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: libenca-dev from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | Extremely Naive Charset Analyser - development files | http://cihar.com/software/enca/ - Ubuntu apt - libenca0 - 1.19-1.1build1: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: libenca0 from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | Extremely Naive Charset Analyser - shared library files | http://cihar.com/software/enca/ - apk - enca - 1.19-r4: normalized package name match | Alpine Linux edge package indexes: enca from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz | Charset analyser and converter | http://freshmeat.net/projects/enca/ - apk - enca-dev - 1.19-r4: normalized package name match | Alpine Linux edge package indexes: enca-dev from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz | Charset analyser and converter (development files) | http://freshmeat.net/projects/enca/ - apk - enca-doc - 1.19-r4: normalized package name match | Alpine Linux edge package indexes: enca-doc from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz | Charset analyser and converter (documentation) | http://freshmeat.net/projects/enca/ - dnf - enca - 1.19-19.fc44: normalized package name match | Fedora Rawhide package metadata: enca from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/e5ca8ce900cd68f5419e1c39ae517343100b306336cbaeb70a3c153121d95094-primary.xml.zst | Character set analyzer and detector | http://cihar.com/software/enca - dnf - enca-devel - 1.19-19.fc44: normalized package name match | Fedora Rawhide package metadata: enca-devel from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/e5ca8ce900cd68f5419e1c39ae517343100b306336cbaeb70a3c153121d95094-primary.xml.zst | Header files and libraries for enca charset analyzer | http://cihar.com/software/enca - pacman - enca - 1.22-1: normalized package name match | Arch Linux sync databases: enca from https://geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com/extra/os/x86_64/extra.db.tar.gz | Charset analyser and converter | https://cihar.com/software/enca/ - zypper - enca - 1.19-2.12: normalized package name match | openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: enca from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/be8d3611d25469107f32075a1697e69ec57a2b850b42348a658cc671ad5ec2b50760d02c3e59524d50da9a11d5be799bdaffba2e166e8ca8858512e3c0bd665d-primary.xml.zst | Detects encoding of text files | https://cihar.com/software/enca/ - zypper - enca-devel - 1.19-2.12: normalized package name match | openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: enca-devel from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/be8d3611d25469107f32075a1697e69ec57a2b850b42348a658cc671ad5ec2b50760d02c3e59524d50da9a11d5be799bdaffba2e166e8ca8858512e3c0bd665d-primary.xml.zst | Header files and libraries for Enca development | https://cihar.com/software/enca/ ## Related links - [Terminal utility packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/terminal-utilities/) - Matched terminal and command-line workflow metadata. - [Text processing packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/text-processing-tools/) - Matched text, document, or structured-data processing metadata. - [Developer build packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/developer-build-tools/) - Matched build, compiler, generator, or developer workflow metadata. - [Networking and protocol packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/networking-protocol-tools/) - Matched network, protocol, or remote-service metadata. - [align](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/align/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, developer-tools, text-processing. - [bsdconv](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/bsdconv/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, developer-tools, text-processing. - [cconv](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/cconv/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, developer-tools, text-processing. - [cmigemo](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/cmigemo/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, developer-tools, text-processing. - [decasify](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/decasify/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, developer-tools, text-processing. - [desed](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/desed/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, developer-tools, text-processing. - [enscript](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/enscript/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, developer-tools, text-processing. - [fex](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/fex/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, developer-tools, text-processing. - [recode](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/recode/) - Local package facts share a topical domain. Shared terms: charset, cli, developer, developer-tools, encoding. - [chardet](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/chardet/) - Local package facts share a topical domain. Shared terms: charset, cli, developer, developer-tools, encoding. ## Combined YAML source View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/enca.yml](https://github.com/automic-vault/db/blob/main/combined/enca.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 - external package-manager database matches - cross-ecosystem install command graph