Install id3lib with Homebrew, apk, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, zypper

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• id3convert
• id3cp
• id3info
• id3tag

Project history

The project homepage describes id3lib as an open-source, cross-platform library focused on ID3v2 compliance, portability, and a stable API. It also credits Dirk Mahoney as the original ID3Lib author and notes that releases up through 3.05a were public-domain and no longer maintained.

The SourceForge project was registered on 1999-12-28 and hosted the development center: downloads, mailing lists, bugs, patches, and CVS. A SourceForge mailing-list post from 2000 describes the Unix-oriented branch, LGPL relicensing, and the shift away from a MusicMatch-controlled line into the SourceForge project.

Adoption history

id3lib was adopted by desktop and command-line audio tools that needed ID3v1 and ID3v2 handling before newer libraries became common. The project homepage listed users such as EasyTAG, GNOMAD, the id3v2 command-line editor, and other MP3 organizers and taggers.

Package managers kept id3lib available because old media tools continued to build against it. Homebrew, Debian-family packages, Arch, MacPorts, Nix, and other ecosystems expose either the library, its tools, or both.

How it is used

Developers used id3lib through C++ APIs such as ID3_Tag to parse an audio file, inspect frames, edit fields, and write changes back. The packaged tools id3info, id3tag, id3convert, and id3cp provide quick shell access to common metadata operations.

The library's age is part of its maintenance profile. Project pages and downstream comments point to ID3v2.3-era behavior and limited ID3v2.4 support, so package users often keep it for compatibility rather than for newer tagging features.

Why package nerds care

id3lib is the kind of dependency that survives because old audio programs and scripts still expect it. It is small, C/C++-based, autotools-era, and often patched downstream to keep compiling on newer toolchains.

It also marks a transition point in open-source audio metadata tooling: ID3v2 support moved from scattered application code toward reusable libraries, then later toward alternatives such as TagLib.

Timeline

• Pre-3.05a: Dirk Mahoney's ID3Lib releases were public-domain according to the project homepage.
• 1999-12-28: The SourceForge id3lib project was registered.
• 2000-04-06: A project mailing-list post described LGPL relicensing and a Unix-friendly SourceForge branch.
• 2001-09-08: The published Doxygen API documentation was generated for id3lib 3.8.0pre2.
• 3.8.3: The project homepage listed 3.8.3 as the release version.

Related projects

• id3v2 is a command-line editor built on id3lib. EasyTAG and other audio taggers used id3lib for MP3 metadata. TagLib became a common successor recommendation for projects needing broader or more maintained audio tag support.
• The package sits near other MP3-era metadata tools such as libid3tag, eyeD3, kid3, and mutagen, but id3lib's C++ API and bundled utilities gave it a distinct packaging footprint.

Sources

• https://id3lib.sourceforge.net/
• https://id3lib.sourceforge.net/api/index.html
• https://sourceforge.net/p/id3lib/mailman/message/3316238/
• https://sourceforge.net/projects/id3lib/