Install gmt with Homebrew, apt, dnf, Nix, pacman, winget

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• fz_funcs
• fz_funcs.sh
• fzmodeler
• fzprofiler
• gmt
• gmt-config
• gmt_shell_functions.sh
• gmtswitch
• isogmt

Project history

GMT was initiated in late 1987 at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, by graduate students Paul Wessel and Walter H. F. Smith. Version 1 was introduced to Lamont scientists in July 1988, then spread by word of mouth and tape to institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and France.

Version 2.0 was released with a 1991 EOS article and spread worldwide. Version 3.0 followed in 1993 and was described in a 1995 EOS article; a major GMT 4 upgrade arrived in October 2004.

GMT 5 was released in 2013 with broad backward compatibility for GMT 4 syntax. GMT 6 arrived in 2019 with modern mode, a major workflow change intended to make plotting scripts easier to write while retaining the classic command-line model.

The project also professionalized its research-software identity through citation records. The official citation page lists papers for GMT 2, GMT 3, GMT 5, GMT 6, GMT/MATLAB, animation support, and the project's origin story, along with Zenodo DOIs for releases.

Adoption history

The official site describes GMT as widely used across Earth, ocean, and planetary sciences and beyond, with GMT-made illustrations appearing in scientific journals, meeting posters, Wikipedia pages, and other publications.

The README broadens that audience to medical research, engineering, physics, mathematics, social and biological sciences, geography, fisheries institutes, oil companies, government agencies, and hobbyists. The official About page describes tens of thousands of users worldwide.

Packaging helped that adoption because GMT is naturally scriptable. Scientists could install a stable command suite through Unix package managers, keep plotting recipes in shell scripts or Makefiles, and reproduce figures without a graphical GIS workflow.

How it is used

Practitioners use GMT modules for filtering, trend fitting, gridding, projecting, map projection transformations, contour maps, illuminated surfaces, 3D perspective views, and animations. The README describes about 100 core command-line tools plus around 50 specialized supplement tools.

A typical GMT workflow combines data tables or grids with commands that transform, grid, style, and render figures. The package also brings supporting data such as GSHHG coastlines, rivers, political boundaries, and optional Digital Chart of the World polygons.

Modern mode in GMT 6 lets users write more concise figure scripts, while classic mode remains important for long-lived shell pipelines and publications with reproducible plotting commands.

Why package nerds care

GMT is a canonical scientific CLI package: many small commands, strict text/data interfaces, stable documentation, optional datasets, and decades of scripts in the wild. Package managers keep that ecosystem available without each lab maintaining a custom build.

It also sits at the intersection of Unix plotting, cartography, and research reproducibility. A GMT package is not just an application install; it is often part of a paper's build chain.

Timeline

• 1987: GMT initiated at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
• 1988: Version 1 introduced to Lamont scientists.
• 1991: Version 2.0 released with an EOS article.
• 1993: Version 3.0 released.
• 2004: GMT 4.0 major upgrade released.
• 2013: GMT 5 series released.
• 2019: GMT 6 released with modern mode.
• 2025: GMT 6.6.0 release published.

Related projects

• GSHHG and DCW provide common support datasets used by GMT.
• netCDF, GDAL, PCRE, FFTW, LAPACK, BLAS, GLib, Zlib, Ghostscript, FFmpeg, and GraphicsMagick are named by the README as important dependencies or external tools.
• PyGMT, GMT/MATLAB, GMT.jl, and related interfaces make GMT available from Python, MATLAB/Octave, Julia, and other environments.

Sources

• https://api.github.com/repos/GenericMappingTools/gmt
• https://docs.generic-mapping-tools.org/6.6/
• https://docs.generic-mapping-tools.org/6.6/changes.html
• https://github.com/GenericMappingTools/gmt
• https://www.generic-mapping-tools.org/
• https://www.generic-mapping-tools.org/about/
• https://www.generic-mapping-tools.org/cite/