Install gwenhywfar with Homebrew, apk, dnf, Nix, pacman, zypper

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• gct-tool
• gwbuild
• gwenhywfar-config
• mklistdoc
• typemaker
• typemaker2
• xmlmerge

Project history

The project predates the Redmine file list and appears in older SourceForge hosting, whose project page says development moved to aqbanking.de. The AqBanking family page lists Gwenhywfar as the operating-system abstraction and multifunction library in the family, alongside AqBanking, Libchipcard, AqFinance, and related projects.

The README says Gwenhywfar is written in C while following object-oriented programming patterns for many parts, and that its headers can be used directly from C++. It names Martin Preuss as writer and maintainer and thanks Christian Stimming for contributions and MSVC support, which made the library fully available on Windows.

Gwenhywfar's scope grew into a portability base for financial and security-oriented software. The README lists basic data structures, type-safe list macros, directory and Internet-address abstraction, dynamic-library loading, economical connection management, hierarchical file parsing, XML processing, cryptographic functions over OpenSSL, and IPC over HTTP, SSL, TCP, or UDP.

Adoption history

The strongest adoption path is through the AqBanking stack. The README lists Libchipcard, OpenHBCI2, Simthetic, and AqBanking/AqHBCI as users, and the AqBanking family page identifies Gwenhywfar as one of the central subprojects. That made Gwenhywfar visible to users through higher-level finance software rather than as an application they invoke directly.

The README says development is on Linux while documenting support for Windows, FreeBSD, Linux, Mac OS X, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and SunOS 5.9, plus a Debian architecture list. Distribution packaging across Homebrew, Linux distributions, and Nix-like catalogs reflects that role: Gwenhywfar is usually installed because AqBanking, GnuCash, KMyMoney, or companion tools need it.

The upstream Redmine files page shows a long 5.x series after the 4.20 and 5.0 tarballs were posted in April 2020. Later file entries show 5.10.x in 2022 and 2023, beta 5.11.x tarballs in 2024, and 5.12 through 5.14 tarballs in 2024 and 2025, indicating continued maintenance of the library layer.

How it is used

End users usually encounter Gwenhywfar indirectly. Developers use its headers, pkg-config metadata, gwenhywfar-config, generated data-container tooling, and build helpers while compiling or linking AqBanking-family software. Its command-line tools in packaging are mostly support utilities rather than a single user-facing application.

The README documents build requirements such as GnuTLS, libgcrypt, and pkg-config, and notes doxygen-generated source documentation from header comments. On Windows, it stores selected path information below HKEY_CURRENT_USER for plugin locations, matching its role as a cross-platform support library.

Why package nerds care

Gwenhywfar matters to package maintainers because it is the shared portability and utility layer beneath a banking stack. ABI, crypto backend, GUI binding, and platform support details can ripple into AqBanking, GnuCash, KMyMoney, and distribution finance packages, so it behaves like infrastructure even though the name is obscure.

It is also a good example of a package that exists mainly to make other packages portable. The interesting packaging work is not a flashy executable but keeping a C library, generated helpers, crypto dependencies, Windows support, and Unix build metadata aligned across platforms.

Timeline

• Pre-2020: Development moved from SourceForge-era hosting to the AqBanking project family site.
• 2020-04-06: Redmine files page lists Gwenhywfar 4.20.0, 4.20.1, 4.20.2, 5.0.0, and 5.1.x source tarballs.
• 2020-04-07: Redmine files page lists 5.2.0 and 5.3.0 source tarballs.
• 2021: Redmine files page lists 5.5 through 5.8 source tarballs.
• 2022-07-31: Redmine files page lists 5.10.0 source tarball.
• 2024: Redmine files page lists 5.11 beta tarballs and 5.12.0.
• 2025: Redmine files page lists 5.12.1, 5.12.2, 5.13.0, 5.14.0, and 5.14.1 source tarballs.
• 2026-05-18: README date records a maintained source tree snapshot.

Related projects

• AqBanking and AqHBCI: principal family projects that use Gwenhywfar.
• Libchipcard and OpenHBCI2: projects listed by the README as Gwenhywfar users.
• GnuCash and KMyMoney: downstream finance applications commonly packaged with AqBanking and Gwenhywfar.
• GnuTLS, libgcrypt, OpenSSL, and pkg-config: dependencies or build interfaces named in upstream documentation.

Sources

• https://git.aquamaniac.de/git/gwenhywfar
• https://github.com/aqbanking/gwenhywfar
• https://gwenhywfar.sourceforge.net/
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aqbanking/gwenhywfar/master/README
• https://www.aquamaniac.de/
• https://www.aquamaniac.de/rdm/projects/gwenhywfar
• https://www.aquamaniac.de/rdm/projects/gwenhywfar/files