Install entr with Homebrew, apk, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, zypper

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• entr

Project history

The README describes entr as an Event Notify Test Runner written to facilitate rapid feedback on the command line. Its implementation deliberately relies on native operating-system event facilities, using kqueue on BSD/macOS-style systems and inotify on Linux.

The release history shows steady maintenance across portability, process-control, and file-notification edge cases. Version 4.3 in 2019 moved hosting from Bitbucket to GitHub and replaced Mercurial with Git in its system-test workflow, a useful marker in the project's packaging history.

Adoption history

entr is broadly packaged for Unix-like systems. The input package facts list Alpine, Homebrew, Debian, Fedora, MacPorts, Nix, Arch, Ubuntu, and openSUSE package names, and Homebrew formula analytics showed thousands of annual installs during this run.

Its adoption is helped by having no project-specific build system assumptions: examples use standard shell pipelines with `ls`, `find`, `make`, `psql`, Node, Ruby, and web servers, so it fits into many language ecosystems without becoming part of any one of them.

How it is used

Common uses include rebuilding a project when source files change, running tests after successful builds, restarting a development server, clearing a terminal before command output, and re-running database scripts. The web documentation explains restart mode, directory watching for new files, status filters, and the `/_` placeholder for the changed file.

entr's design leaves file discovery to other tools and command execution to the shell. That keeps the package small, but it also means users compose it with `find`, `ls`, `ag`, `ack`, `make`, or language-specific commands depending on the project.

Why package nerds care

entr is a classic package-manager tool: tiny, portable, scriptable, and more powerful because it composes with everything else. It occupies the space between ad hoc shell loops and heavier file-watcher daemons, which is why it shows up in many Unix package collections.

For maintainers, the interesting bits are platform event semantics and terminal/process behavior, not dependency management. The NEWS file is mostly a chronicle of inotify, kqueue, signals, file limits, child processes, and terminal handling.

Timeline

• 2015: 3.x releases document directory watching and release-number display.
• 2018: 4.0 refines restart mode and terminal restoration.
• 2019: 4.3 moves hosting from Bitbucket to GitHub and switches test workflow dependency from Mercurial to Git.
• 2020: 4.4 adds a single inotify queue and an inotify workaround mode for limited platforms.
• 2021: 5.0 ships, continuing Linux and macOS event-handling refinements.
• 2026: 5.8 adds a help flag, symlink monitoring changes, and more file-limit handling on macOS.

Related projects

• entr is often compared operationally with file-watcher tools, test runners, and reloaders, but it remains intentionally shell-oriented.
• Its documentation explicitly suggests pairing it with source listing tools such as ag or ack and build commands such as make.

Sources

• https://eradman.com/entrproject
• https://github.com/eradman/entr/blob/master/README.md
• https://github.com/eradman/entr/blob/master/NEWS
• https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/entr