# Install gobject-introspection with Homebrew, apk, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, zypper Generate introspection data for GObject libraries. Version 1.86.0 via Homebrew; verified 2026-06-08. ## Install ```sh sudo av install brew:gobject-introspection ``` Additional install commands: ### macOS - Homebrew (100%): ```sh brew install gobject-introspection ``` Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata - MacPorts (94%): ```sh sudo port install gobject-introspection ``` Evidence: MacPorts ports tree: gnome/gobject-introspection/Portfile from https://api.github.com/repos/macports/macports-ports/git/trees/master?recursive=1 ### Linux - apk (92%): ```sh sudo apk add gobject-introspection ``` Evidence: Alpine Linux edge package indexes: gobject-introspection from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/main/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz - Debian apt (92%): ```sh sudo apt install gir1.2-freedesktop ``` Evidence: Debian stable package indexes: gir1.2-freedesktop from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz - dnf (92%): ```sh sudo dnf install gobject-introspection ``` Evidence: Fedora Rawhide package metadata: gobject-introspection 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#gobject-introspection ``` Evidence: nixpkgs package indexes: gobject-introspection from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/master/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix - pacman (92%): ```sh sudo pacman -S gobject-introspection ``` Evidence: Arch Linux sync databases: gobject-introspection from https://geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com/extra/os/x86_64/extra.db.tar.gz - zypper (92%): ```sh sudo zypper install girepository-1_0 ``` Evidence: openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: girepository-1_0 from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/be8d3611d25469107f32075a1697e69ec57a2b850b42348a658cc671ad5ec2b50760d02c3e59524d50da9a11d5be799bdaffba2e166e8ca8858512e3c0bd665d-primary.xml.zst ## Package facts - **Package key:** brew:gobject-introspection - **Package manager:** Homebrew - **Package manager page:** - **Version:** 1.86.0 - **Source summary:** Generate introspection data for GObject libraries - **Homepage:** - **Repository:** - **Upstream docs:** - **License:** GPL-2.0-or-later AND LGPL-2.0-or-later AND MIT - **Source archive:** - **Last updated:** 2026-06-08T19:08:53-04:00 - **Generated:** 2026-07-08T07:18:31+00:00 ## Executables - g-ir-annotation-tool (cli) - g-ir-compiler (cli) - g-ir-doc-tool (cli) - g-ir-generate (cli) - g-ir-inspect (cli) - g-ir-scanner (cli) - g-ir-annotation-tool (alias) - g-ir-compiler (alias) - g-ir-doc-tool (alias) - g-ir-generate (alias) - g-ir-inspect (alias) - g-ir-scanner (alias) ## Dependencies - cairo - glib - pkgconf - python@3.14 ## Build dependencies - bison - meson - ninja ## Uses from macOS - libffi ## 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: 1.86.0 - Package-manager updated: 2026-06-08 - Local data: ok - Upstream repository: https://gi.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ - info: Release/tag comparison is only available for GitHub repositories. ## Project history and usage GObject Introspection is GNOME infrastructure that turns C libraries using GObject conventions into machine-readable metadata. It provides GIR XML, compiled typelib files, scanner/compiler tools, and libgirepository so higher-level language bindings can call C APIs without each binding maintaining its own handwritten metadata. For package maintainers it is not just another developer tool. It is build-time and runtime plumbing that many GNOME-adjacent packages need so Python, JavaScript, Vala, Perl, Ruby, Lua, Haskell, and other bindings can consume the same library metadata. ### Project history The project grew out of GNOME's long-standing need to share binding metadata instead of duplicating hand-maintained fixes across language bindings. The official goals page frames the work as a bridge between low-level C libraries and higher-level runtimes, and as a way to keep binding metadata inside the libraries through annotations. GNOME's source archive records the 0.5.0 tarball on September 1, 2008. By the 1.30.0 release on September 20, 2011, the project had entered the 1.x line used alongside the GNOME 3 era. The documentation describes the core toolchain as g-ir-scanner, g-ir-compiler, g-ir-generate, g-ir-annotation-tool, GIR XML, typelib files, and libgirepository. ### Adoption history GObject Introspection became a shared foundation for language bindings rather than a user-facing app. The official users page lists bindings and consumers including Vala, Genie, PyGObject, GTK-Perl/Introspection, JGIR, GJS, Seed, GirFFI, Ruby-GNOME, Guile GI, lgi, node-gir, go-gir, haskell-gi, Common Lisp, Free Pascal, Prolog, Harbour, C++, and Crystal projects. Distribution packaging reflects that infrastructure role. Homebrew packages it as gobject-introspection with dependencies on GLib, Cairo, pkgconf, and Python, while the input package facts map it across multiple Unix packaging systems under names such as gobject-introspection, gir1.2-freedesktop, and girepository-1_0. ### How it is used Library authors enable introspection during the build, annotate APIs, and generate GIR files and typelibs. Binding authors and runtime libraries then consume those artifacts to expose the same C APIs in languages such as Python via PyGObject or JavaScript via GJS. Package builders care about it because it can affect cross-compilation, build ordering, and split packages: GIR development metadata and compiled typelibs often need to land in different package outputs. The official documentation includes dedicated build-system integration material for Meson and Autotools, and the changelog records build-system transitions such as the end of autotools support after the 1.60 line and the later drop of autotools in the 1.61 development series. ### Why package nerds care GObject Introspection is one of the packages that explains why GNOME stacks look the way they do in package managers: many applications do not depend on it directly for a command-line interface, but their language bindings, generated metadata, and typelibs depend on it being present and correctly split. It is also a recurring example of packaging complexity caused by generated ABI metadata. The same package participates in compiler-like scanning, documentation, runtime reflection, language bindings, and cross-build work, so small changes in it can ripple through GTK, GStreamer, GJS, PyGObject, and desktop application builds. ### Timeline - 2008-09-01: GNOME source archive records gobject-introspection 0.5.0 - 2011-09-20: GNOME source archive records gobject-introspection 1.30.0 - 2018-02-08: GNOME GitLab project record created during GNOME's GitLab-hosted era - 2019-03-10: 1.60.0 changelog notes the final release supporting autotools - 2019-08-07: 1.61.1 changelog notes the autotools build system was dropped - 2025-09-13: 1.86.0 appears in the official changelog and GNOME source archive ### Related projects - GLib and GObject are the underlying object-system layer whose APIs are described by introspection metadata. - PyGObject, GJS, Vala, Ruby-GNOME, lgi, haskell-gi, and other bindings are documented users of the introspection repository. - GTK and GStreamer are common examples of GObject-based libraries whose bindings and applications rely on introspection data in GNOME-oriented distributions. ### Sources - - - - - - - - - ## Security Notes No matching local secret-handling manifest was found for gobject-introspection. Nucleus package metadata is still published here so future coverage has a stable package URL. ## Source Database Details - **Source Database:** Homebrew formula API - **Tap:** homebrew/core - **Full Name:** gobject-introspection - **Version Scheme:** 0 - **Revision:** 2 - **Bottle Stable Root URL:** - **Deprecated:** no - **Disabled:** no - **Keg Only:** no - **URL Keys:** stable ## Other Package-Manager Records - Debian apt - gir1.2-freedesktop - 1.84.0-1: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: gir1.2-freedesktop from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | Introspection data for some FreeDesktop components | https://wiki.gnome.org/GObjectIntrospection - Debian apt - gir1.2-freedesktop-dev - 1.84.0-1: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: gir1.2-freedesktop-dev from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | GIR XML for some FreeDesktop components | https://wiki.gnome.org/GObjectIntrospection - Debian apt - gir1.2-girepository-2.0 - 1.84.0-1: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: gir1.2-girepository-2.0 from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | Introspection data for GIRepository library | https://wiki.gnome.org/GObjectIntrospection - Debian apt - gir1.2-girepository-2.0-dev - 1.84.0-1: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: gir1.2-girepository-2.0-dev from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | GIR XML for GIRepository library | https://wiki.gnome.org/GObjectIntrospection - Debian apt - gobject-introspection - 1.84.0-1: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: gobject-introspection from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | Generate interface introspection data for GObject libraries | https://wiki.gnome.org/GObjectIntrospection - Debian apt - gobject-introspection-bin - 1.84.0-1: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: gobject-introspection-bin from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | Executables for gobject-introspection | https://wiki.gnome.org/GObjectIntrospection - Debian apt - libgirepository-1.0-1 - 1.84.0-1: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: libgirepository-1.0-1 from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | Library for handling GObject introspection data (runtime library) | https://wiki.gnome.org/GObjectIntrospection - Debian apt - libgirepository-1.0-dev - 1.84.0-1: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: libgirepository-1.0-dev from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | Library for handling GObject introspection data (development files) | https://wiki.gnome.org/GObjectIntrospection - Debian apt - libgirepository1.0-dev - 1.84.0-1: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: libgirepository1.0-dev from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | Library for handling GObject introspection data (complete development files) | https://wiki.gnome.org/GObjectIntrospection - Debian apt - libgirepository1.0-doc - 1.84.0-1: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: libgirepository1.0-doc from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | Library for handling GObject introspection data (documentation) | https://wiki.gnome.org/GObjectIntrospection - Nix - gobject-introspection: normalized package name match | nixpkgs package indexes: gobject-introspection from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/master/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix - Ubuntu apt - gir1.2-freedesktop - 1.80.1-1: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: gir1.2-freedesktop from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/main/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | Introspection data for some FreeDesktop components | https://wiki.gnome.org/GObjectIntrospection - Ubuntu apt - gir1.2-freedesktop-dev - 1.80.1-1: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: gir1.2-freedesktop-dev from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/main/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | GIR XML for some FreeDesktop components | https://wiki.gnome.org/GObjectIntrospection - Ubuntu apt - gir1.2-girepository-2.0 - 1.80.1-1: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: gir1.2-girepository-2.0 from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/main/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | Introspection data for GIRepository library | https://wiki.gnome.org/GObjectIntrospection - Ubuntu apt - gir1.2-girepository-2.0-dev - 1.80.1-1: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: gir1.2-girepository-2.0-dev from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/main/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | GIR XML for GIRepository library | https://wiki.gnome.org/GObjectIntrospection - Ubuntu apt - gobject-introspection - 1.80.1-1: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: gobject-introspection from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/main/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | Generate interface introspection data for GObject libraries | https://wiki.gnome.org/GObjectIntrospection ## 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. - [Language runtime packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/language-runtime-packages/) - Matched language runtime, compiler, or interpreter metadata. - [cairo](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/cairo/) - Runtime dependency declared by Homebrew. - [glib](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/glib/) - Runtime dependency declared by Homebrew. - [pkgconf](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/pkgconf/) - Runtime dependency declared by Homebrew. - [python@3.14](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/python-3-14/) - Runtime dependency declared by Homebrew. - [bison](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/bison/) - Build dependency declared by Homebrew. - [meson](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/meson/) - Build dependency declared by Homebrew. - [ninja](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/ninja/) - Build dependency declared by Homebrew. - [dissent](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/dissent/) - Popular package that depends on this formula. - [gedit](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/gedit/) - Popular package that depends on this formula. - [gitg](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/gitg/) - Popular package that depends on this formula. - [gnome-builder](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/gnome-builder/) - Popular package that depends on this formula. - [mikutter](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/mikutter/) - Popular package that depends on this formula. - [gi-docgen](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/gi-docgen/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, developer-tools, gnome, gobject, introspection. - [cbindgen](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/cbindgen/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: bindings, cli, developer-tools. - [libdazzle](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/libdazzle/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, developer-tools, gnome, gobject. - [swig](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/swig/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: bindings, cli, developer-tools. - [wasm-bindgen](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/wasm-bindgen/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: bindings, cli, developer-tools. - [blueprint-compiler](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/blueprint-compiler/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, developer-tools, gnome. - [gammaray](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/gammaray/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, developer-tools, introspection. - [gcab](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/gcab/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, developer-tools, gnome. ## Combined YAML source View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/gobject-introspection.yml](https://github.com/automic-vault/db/blob/main/combined/gobject-introspection.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