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brew

Install gsasl with Homebrew, apt, Nix, pacman, zypper

SASL library command-line interface. Version 2.2.4 via Homebrew; verified 2026-06-16.

Install commandSecurity notes

install

Additional install commands

macOS

Homebrewverified · 100%
brew install gsasl

local Homebrew formula metadata

Linux

Debian aptverified · 92%
sudo apt install gsasl

Debian stable package indexes · gsasl · source: deb.debian.org

Nixverified · 92%
nix profile install nixpkgs#gsasl

nixpkgs package indexes · pkgs/by-name/gs/gsasl/package.nix · source: api.github.com

Arch Linux pacmanverified · 92%
sudo pacman -S gsasl

Arch Linux sync databases · gsasl · source: geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com

openSUSE zypperverified · 92%
sudo zypper install gsasl

openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata · gsasl · source: download.opensuse.org

overview

Package summary

SASL library command-line interface

Commands and aliases

  • gsasl

history

Project history and usage

GNU SASL is the GNU project's implementation of the Simple Authentication and Security Layer framework. It is both a C library, libgsasl, and a command-line program, gsasl, aimed at applications that need SASL authentication for protocols such as IMAP, SMTP, and XMPP.

The package sits in the network-authentication layer rather than in a user-facing mail or chat client. Its value is that application authors can delegate SASL mechanisms, callback handling, and protocol details to a small portable C library.

Project history

The project began in 2002 as libgsasl and became an official GNU package in December 2002. The GNU project page records the initial 0.0.0 release on 2002-10-07, the rename from libgsasl to GNU SASL in 0.0.4, and the opening of GNU web pages with development moved to Savannah.

Early development focused on establishing a clean-room SASL implementation with clear copyright and licensing, then broadening mechanism support. The GNU page lists goals such as thread safety, internationalization through SASLprep, portability, and callbacks that let the embedding application control authorization infrastructure.

The licensing story is part of the project's identity. The GNU SASL page says the library was changed to LGPLv2.1+ because other free SASL implementations existed and the maintainer expected that LGPL terms would invite more help, while the command-line application and tests later moved to GPLv3-or-later.

The project evolved through major protocol additions: GSSAPI support in 2003, SCRAM-SHA-1 experiments in 2009, GS2-KRB5 and SCRAM-SHA-1(-PLUS) in the 2010 stable series, SAML20 and OPENID20 in 2012, SCRAM-SHA-256 in 2021, and a 2.0.0 line in 2022 that dropped obsolete APIs.

Adoption history

GNU SASL's adoption is best visible in other network software. The project page lists free software users including Exim, Mutt, GNU Mailutils, msmtp and mpop, VMime, curl, Jabberd2, and GNU Anubis.

Its adoption pattern is typical of infrastructure libraries: few end users invoke it directly, but maintainers of mail, XMPP, and transfer software package it so that authentication mechanisms are available through a shared implementation rather than duplicated in every client.

The project also tracks portability explicitly. The GNU page mentions Windows resources, a native Visual Studio build in 2008, and release engineering around reproducible tarballs and CI across several GNU/Linux-derived systems in the 2.2 series.

How it is used

Library users embed libgsasl and provide callbacks for authentication and authorization data. The command-line gsasl tool is useful for testing SASL exchanges and for exercising mechanisms outside a full mail or chat client.

The supported mechanism list is broad for a small C library: ANONYMOUS, CRAM-MD5, DIGEST-MD5, EXTERNAL, GS2-KRB5, GSSAPI, LOGIN, NTLM, OPENID20, PLAIN, SCRAM-SHA-1, SCRAM-SHA-1-PLUS, SCRAM-SHA-256, SCRAM-SHA-256-PLUS, SAML20, and SECURID are documented by the project README and GNU page.

Why package nerds care

GNU SASL is package-nerd material because it is a low-level authentication dependency with a CLI attached. It is easy to overlook until a mail client, MTA, or XMPP server needs a specific SASL mechanism or a distro wants one shared, auditable implementation.

Its release history also exposes packaging concerns that library maintainers care about: ABI/API transitions, optional Kerberos/GSS choices, Windows portability, reproducible tarballs, and integration tests against Dovecot and GNU Mailutils.

Timeline

  • 2002: Initial 0.0.0 release.
  • 2002: Became an official GNU project and moved development to Savannah.
  • 2004: 0.2.0 marked a new major release and the library license moved toward LGPL terms.
  • 2007: Development moved from CVS to git, and the command-line tool and tests moved to GPLv3-or-later.
  • 2010: Stable 1.6.0 added SCRAM-SHA-1(-PLUS) and GS2-KRB5 support.
  • 2012: Stable 1.8.0 added SAML20 and OPENID20 support.
  • 2021: Stable 1.10.0 added SCRAM-SHA-256 support.
  • 2022: Stable 2.0.0 dropped obsolete APIs.

Related projects

  • GNU Mailutils is both a related GNU mail package and an integration-test target mentioned in GNU SASL release notes.
  • Dovecot appears in later GNU SASL integration tests for GSSAPI behavior.
  • GnuTLS and GSS-API implementations such as GNU GSS, MIT Kerberos, Heimdal, and libgssglue are optional or related pieces around secure authentication.

security posture

No protected-tool coverage found yet

No matching local secret-handling manifest was found for gsasl. Nucleus package metadata is still published here so future coverage has a stable package URL.

Install behavior

  • No Homebrew post-install hook is recorded in formula metadata.
  • Homebrew bottle metadata is available for 6 platform targets.
  • Installs with 2 runtime 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
gsaslcliglobal 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 version2.2.4
manager updated2026-06-16
local dataok
upstreamnot checked
latest detectednot detected

https://www.gnu.org/software/gsasl/

install metadata

Package metadata

Package keybrew:gsasl
Version2.2.4
Package managerHomebrew
Package manager pagehttps://formulae.brew.sh/formula/gsasl
Homepagehttps://www.gnu.org/software/gsasl/
Repositoryhttps://gitlab.com/gsasl/gsasl
Upstream docshttps://www.gnu.org/s/gsasl/manual/gsasl.html
LicenseGPL-3.0-or-later
Source archivehttps://ftpmirror.gnu.org/gnu/gsasl/gsasl-2.2.4.tar.gz
Last updated2026-06-16T12:55:03Z
Pulseupdated
Dependenciesgettext, libgcrypt
Bottleavailable (on arm64_linux, arm64_sequoia, arm64_sonoma, arm64_tahoe, sonoma, x86_64_linux)
Homebrew post-installnot defined
Servicenone declared

registry facts

Source database details

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

Debian apt95%

gsasl 2.2.2-1.1

GNU SASL command line utility

https://www.gnu.org/software/gsasl/

sudo apt install gsasl
  • Section: devel
  • Architecture: amd64
  • 3 dependencies
  • 1 optional deps
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Gsasl
Debian stable package indexes · deb.debian.org · Debian stable package indexes: gsasl from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz
Debian apt95%

gsasl-common 2.2.2-1.1

GNU SASL platform independent files

https://www.gnu.org/software/gsasl/

sudo apt install gsasl-common
  • Section: devel
  • Architecture: all
  • Source Package: gsasl
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Gsasl
Debian stable package indexes · deb.debian.org · Debian stable package indexes: gsasl-common from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz
Debian apt95%

gsasl-doc 2.2.2-1.1

GNU SASL documentation

https://www.gnu.org/software/gsasl/

sudo apt install gsasl-doc
  • Section: doc
  • Architecture: all
  • Source Package: gsasl
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Gsasl
Debian stable package indexes · deb.debian.org · Debian stable package indexes: gsasl-doc from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz
Debian apt95%

libgsasl-dev 2.2.2-1.1

Development files for the GNU SASL library

https://www.gnu.org/software/gsasl/

sudo apt install libgsasl-dev
  • Section: libdevel
  • Architecture: amd64
  • Source Package: gsasl
  • 5 dependencies
  • 1 provides
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Gsasl
Debian stable package indexes · deb.debian.org · Debian stable package indexes: libgsasl-dev from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz
Debian apt95%

libgsasl18 2.2.2-1.1

GNU SASL library

https://www.gnu.org/software/gsasl/

sudo apt install libgsasl18
  • Section: libs
  • Architecture: amd64
  • Source Package: gsasl
  • 4 dependencies
  • 1 optional deps
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Gsasl
Debian stable package indexes · deb.debian.org · Debian stable package indexes: libgsasl18 from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz
Nix95%

gsasl

nix profile install nixpkgs#gsasl
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Gsasl
nixpkgs package indexes · api.github.com · nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/gs/gsasl/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1
Ubuntu apt95%

gsasl 2.2.1-1willsync1build2

GNU SASL command line utility

https://www.gnu.org/software/gsasl/

sudo apt install gsasl
  • Section: universe/devel
  • Architecture: amd64
  • 3 dependencies
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Gsasl
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes · archive.ubuntu.com · Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: gsasl from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz
Ubuntu apt95%

gsasl-common 2.2.1-1willsync1build2

GNU SASL platform independent files

https://www.gnu.org/software/gsasl/

sudo apt install gsasl-common
  • Section: devel
  • Architecture: all
  • Source Package: gsasl
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Gsasl
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes · archive.ubuntu.com · Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: gsasl-common from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/main/binary-amd64/Packages.gz
Ubuntu apt95%

gsasl-doc 2.2.1-1willsync1build2

GNU SASL documentation

https://www.gnu.org/software/gsasl/

sudo apt install gsasl-doc
  • Section: doc
  • Architecture: all
  • Source Package: gsasl
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Gsasl
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes · archive.ubuntu.com · Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: gsasl-doc from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/main/binary-amd64/Packages.gz
Ubuntu apt95%

libgsasl-dev 2.2.1-1willsync1build2

Development files for the GNU SASL library

https://www.gnu.org/software/gsasl/

sudo apt install libgsasl-dev
  • Section: libdevel
  • Architecture: amd64
  • Source Package: gsasl
  • 5 dependencies
  • 1 provides
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Gsasl
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes · archive.ubuntu.com · Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: libgsasl-dev from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/main/binary-amd64/Packages.gz
Ubuntu apt95%

libgsasl18 2.2.1-1willsync1build2

GNU SASL library

https://www.gnu.org/software/gsasl/

sudo apt install libgsasl18
  • Section: libs
  • Architecture: amd64
  • Source Package: gsasl
  • 4 dependencies
  • 1 optional deps
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Gsasl
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes · archive.ubuntu.com · Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: libgsasl18 from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/main/binary-amd64/Packages.gz
pacman95%

gsasl 2.2.3-1

Simple Authentication and Security Layer framework and a few common SASL mechanisms

https://www.gnu.org/software/gsasl/

sudo pacman -S gsasl
  • License: LGPL-2.1-or-later AND GPL-3.0-or-later AND GFDL-1.3-or-later
  • Architecture: x86_64
  • 3 dependencies
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Gsasl
Arch Linux sync databases · geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com · Arch Linux sync databases: gsasl from https://geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com/extra/os/x86_64/extra.db.tar.gz
zypper95%

gsasl 2.2.3-1.1

Implementation of the SASL framework and a few common SASL mechanisms

https://www.gnu.org/software/gsasl/

sudo zypper install gsasl
  • License: GPL-3.0-or-later AND LGPL-2.1-or-later
  • Category: Development/Libraries/C and C++
  • Architecture: x86_64
  • Source Package: gsasl
  • 2 dependencies
  • 1 provides
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Gsasl
openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata · download.opensuse.org · openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: gsasl from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/be8d3611d25469107f32075a1697e69ec57a2b850b42348a658cc671ad5ec2b50760d02c3e59524d50da9a11d5be799bdaffba2e166e8ca8858512e3c0bd665d-primary.xml.zst
zypper95%

gsasl-devel 2.2.3-1.1

Headers for GNU SASL, an implementation of the SASL framework

https://www.gnu.org/software/gsasl/

sudo zypper install gsasl-devel
  • License: GPL-3.0-or-later AND LGPL-2.1-or-later
  • Category: Development/Libraries/C and C++
  • Architecture: x86_64
  • Source Package: gsasl
  • 3 dependencies
  • 3 provides
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Gsasl
openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata · download.opensuse.org · openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: gsasl-devel from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/be8d3611d25469107f32075a1697e69ec57a2b850b42348a658cc671ad5ec2b50760d02c3e59524d50da9a11d5be799bdaffba2e166e8ca8858512e3c0bd665d-primary.xml.zst
zypper95%

gsasl-lang 2.2.3-1.1

Translations for package gsasl

https://www.gnu.org/software/gsasl/

sudo zypper install gsasl-lang
  • License: GPL-3.0-or-later AND LGPL-2.1-or-later
  • Category: System/Localization
  • Architecture: noarch
  • Source Package: gsasl
  • 1 dependencies
  • 3 provides
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Gsasl
openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata · download.opensuse.org · openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: gsasl-lang from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/be8d3611d25469107f32075a1697e69ec57a2b850b42348a658cc671ad5ec2b50760d02c3e59524d50da9a11d5be799bdaffba2e166e8ca8858512e3c0bd665d-primary.xml.zst
zypper95%

libgsasl18 2.2.3-1.1

Implementation of the SASL framework and a few common SASL mechanisms

https://www.gnu.org/software/gsasl/

sudo zypper install libgsasl18
  • License: GPL-3.0-or-later AND LGPL-2.1-or-later
  • Category: System/Libraries
  • Architecture: x86_64
  • Source Package: gsasl
  • 4 dependencies
  • 2 provides
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Gsasl
openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata · download.opensuse.org · openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: libgsasl18 from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/be8d3611d25469107f32075a1697e69ec57a2b850b42348a658cc671ad5ec2b50760d02c3e59524d50da9a11d5be799bdaffba2e166e8ca8858512e3c0bd665d-primary.xml.zst

package graph

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

Related tools

  • gettextRuntime dependency declared by Homebrew.
  • libgcryptRuntime dependency declared by Homebrew.
  • mailutilsPopular package that depends on this formula.

Same workflow

  • freediameterShares av.db curated category or tags: authentication, cli, networking.
  • freeradius-serverShares av.db curated category or tags: authentication, cli, networking.
  • gensioShares av.db curated category or tags: c-library, cli, networking.
  • ldnsShares av.db curated category or tags: c-library, cli, networking.
  • libdnetShares av.db curated category or tags: c-library, cli, networking.
  • libnlShares av.db curated category or tags: c-library, cli, networking.

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