Install hoedown with Homebrew

Project links

• Homepage
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• hoedown

Project history

Hoedown's history is short but clear: it was created as a revived continuation of Sundown, keeping the zero-dependency C parser model, renderer separation, UTF-8 handling, extension support, and production/security orientation that made Sundown useful in language bindings and web-rendering stacks.

Repository tags show a compact release run from 1.0.0 in September 2013 through 3.0.7 in December 2015. The README continued to present Hoedown as a small C99 codebase that could be built as a dynamic library, used through the hoedown and smartypants executables, or embedded by copying source files.

Adoption history

Hoedown adoption was mainly library and binding driven. The official README points to a community-maintained bindings list and a migration guide for Sundown binding authors, which is the clearest signal of its role: it was useful to projects that wanted a fast embeddable Markdown implementation without carrying a large dependency tree.

The Homebrew formula gave macOS users a straightforward way to install the CLI and library, but the project is better understood as part of the Sundown/Upskirt markdown-parser family than as a broad standalone application.

How it is used

The included build creates command-line tools for Markdown-to-HTML rendering and SmartyPants processing, while library users can embed the parser and supply or customize renderers. Its README emphasizes extension support such as fenced code blocks, tables, autolinks, and strikethrough, while warning users to escape or post-process embedded HTML when needed.

The package is useful where a project wants C Markdown parsing, predictable small-source vendoring, or a historical Sundown-compatible parser. It is less visible in day-to-day package-manager culture than newer CommonMark-oriented parsers, but it remains recognizable to people tracing old Markdown stacks.

Why package nerds care

Hoedown matters to package nerds as a small, sharp example of the old C Markdown ecosystem: a fork of a fork, a CLI plus embeddable library, no runtime dependency pile, and enough security language in the README to explain why downstreams once cared.

It is also a reminder that package-manager names often preserve parser lineages long after application developers have moved to newer Markdown implementations.

Timeline

• 2011: Sundown repository history began before the Hoedown fork lineage.
• 2013: Hoedown 1.0.0 tag created.
• 2013: Hoedown 2.0.0 tag created.
• 2014: Hoedown 3.0.0 tag created.
• 2015: Hoedown 3.0.7 tag created.

Related projects

• Sundown is the direct parent project named by Hoedown. Upskirt is the earlier parser codebase named by both Sundown and Hoedown. Language bindings such as node-hoedown and Text::Markdown::Hoedown are adjacent projects that carried the parser into other ecosystems.

Sources

• https://github.com/hoedown/hoedown/tags - official tag history.
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hoedown/hoedown/master/README.md - official README for origin, features, security notes, bindings, and build model.
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vmg/sundown/master/README.markdown - upstream Sundown README for the parent parser lineage.