Automic VaultAutomic Vault

brew

Install gif2png with Homebrew, dnf, pacman

Convert GIFs to PNGs. Version 3.0.3 via Homebrew; verified from local package data.

Install commandSecurity notes

install

Additional install commands

macOS

Homebrewverified · 100%
brew install gif2png

local Homebrew formula metadata

overview

Package summary

Convert GIFs to PNGs

Commands and aliases

  • gif2png
  • web2png

history

Project history and usage

gif2png is a classic image-conversion utility that converts GIF files to PNG and ships with `web2png`, a front end for converting web hierarchies and rewriting image references. It is strongly associated with the late-1990s move from GIF toward PNG on the open web.

Project history

The project predates its GitLab hosting and has a long changelog preserved by Eric S. Raymond's project page. The NEWS file shows releases in 1999 leading up to version 2.0.0, which was marked ready for Burn All GIFs Day, a campaign-era milestone in PNG advocacy.

Development continued through portability, packaging, and correctness work: DocBook documentation in 2002, RPM and Freshmeat packaging updates in 2003, libpng and security fixes in the 2000s and 2010s, a simpler makefile after Autotools removal in 2015, a Go port in 2019, and Go module packaging in 2023.

Adoption history

gif2png's adoption was rooted in a specific historical problem: GIF was ubiquitous but politically and technically contentious, while PNG offered a patent-free replacement for many web graphics. The utility gave web maintainers a batchable path to convert image assets and update references.

The package's continued presence in Homebrew, Fedora, Arch, and other packaging indexes reflects its role as a small, stable conversion tool rather than a large image suite. Users who need this exact conversion can install a purpose-built command instead of pulling in a broad graphics application.

How it is used

Practitioners use `gif2png` for file-level GIF to PNG conversion and `web2png` when converting a directory tree of web pages and image references. The README describes POSIX and Go build requirements, a regression test suite, and the `make check` workflow.

Typical use is archival cleanup, static-site maintenance, packaging tests around image conversion, or migration of old GIF-heavy web assets to PNG.

Why package nerds care

gif2png is package-nerd significant because it is old, focused, and still easy to package. Its changelog records decades of small portability and correctness fixes, including security hardening and a language-port transition from C-era tooling to Go while keeping the command-line identity intact.

Timeline

  • 1999: Version 2.0.0 was prepared for Burn All GIFs Day.
  • 2002: Documentation masters moved to DocBook.
  • 2003: RPM and Freshmeat packaging updates landed in the 2.5 series.
  • 2012: A filename buffer overflow fix for CVE-2009-5018 was released.
  • 2015: Autotools was removed in favor of a simple makefile.
  • 2019: The code was ported to Go.
  • 2023: The build was converted to a Go module.
  • 2026: Version 3.0.4 updated web2png for Python 3.

Related projects

  • gif2png is related to PNG, GIF, libpng, web2png, Burn All GIFs Day, and small Unix-style image conversion utilities.

security posture

Risk level: green

narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.

Risk classifier

green risk · low confidence · appliance

Why

  • narrow executable package without higher-risk signals

Signals

  • metadata:no-higher-risk-signals

Install behavior

  • No Homebrew post-install hook is recorded in formula metadata.
  • Homebrew bottle metadata is available for 12 platform targets.
  • Build metadata lists 2 build dependencies.

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

CommandKindExposureNote
gif2pngcliglobal executable
web2pngcliglobal executable

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 generated2026-07-08
manager version3.0.3
manager updated
local dataok
upstreamnot checked
latest detectednot detected

http://www.catb.org/~esr/gif2png/

  • infoNo package-manager update timestamp was available.low confidence
  • infoRelease/tag comparison is only available for GitHub repositories.http://www.catb.org/~esr/gif2png/none confidence

install metadata

Package metadata

Package keybrew:gif2png
Version3.0.3
Package managerHomebrew
Package manager pagehttps://formulae.brew.sh/formula/gif2png
Homepagehttp://www.catb.org/~esr/gif2png/
Repositoryhttps://gitlab.com/esr/gif2png
Upstream docshttp://www.catb.org/~esr/gif2png
LicenseBSD-2-Clause
Source archivehttps://gitlab.com/esr/gif2png/-/archive/3.0.3/gif2png-3.0.3.tar.bz2
Build dependenciesgo, xmlto
Uses from macOSpython
Bottleavailable (on arm64_big_sur, arm64_linux, arm64_monterey, arm64_sequoia, arm64_sonoma, arm64_tahoe, arm64_ventura, big_sur, monterey, sonoma, ventura, x86_64_linux)
Homebrew post-installnot defined
Servicenone declared

registry facts

Source database details

Source DatabaseHomebrew formula API
Taphomebrew/core
Full Namegif2png
Version Scheme0
Revision0
Head VersionHEAD
Bottle Stable Root URLhttps://ghcr.io/v2/homebrew/core
Deprecatedno
Disabledno
Keg Onlyno
URL Keys
  • head
  • stable

source database matches

Other package-manager records

Matches are pulled from external package-manager indexes and kept separate from local Automic Vault package links.

dnf95%

gif2png 3.0.4-1.fc45

A GIF to PNG converter

http://www.catb.org/~esr/gif2png/

sudo dnf install gif2png
  • License: BSD-2-Clause AND BSD-3-Clause
  • Category: Unspecified
  • Architecture: x86_64
  • Source Package: gif2png
  • 2 dependencies
  • 2 provides
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Gif2png
Fedora Rawhide package metadata · dl.fedoraproject.org · Fedora Rawhide package metadata: gif2png from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/e5ca8ce900cd68f5419e1c39ae517343100b306336cbaeb70a3c153121d95094-primary.xml.zst
pacman95%

gif2png 3.0.3-2

A GIF to PNG image format converter

http://www.catb.org/~esr/gif2png/

sudo pacman -S gif2png
  • License: ZLIB
  • Architecture: x86_64
  • 1 dependencies
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Gif2png
Arch Linux sync databases · geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com · Arch Linux sync databases: gif2png from https://geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com/extra/os/x86_64/extra.db.tar.gz

package graph

Links come from deterministic package relationships, av.db category and tag curation, ecosystem matches, and package hub membership.

Related tools

  • goBuild dependency declared by Homebrew.
  • xmltoBuild dependency declared by Homebrew.

Same workflow

  • makeicnsShares av.db curated category or tags: cli, conversion, image, image-conversion, media.
  • gifcapShares av.db curated category or tags: cli, gif, image, media.
  • gififyShares av.db curated category or tags: cli, conversion, gif, media.
  • gifsicleShares av.db curated category or tags: cli, gif, image, media.
  • gifskiShares av.db curated category or tags: cli, gif, image, media.
  • gimme-aws-credsShares av.db curated category or tags: cli, gif, image, media.

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.

Used sources

  • Geiger risk classifier
  • Nucleus package database
  • av.db category and tag curation
  • cross-ecosystem install command graph
  • curated package history
  • external package-manager database matches
  • package relationship graph
  • package version freshness
  • package-page enrichment