Install ip2location with Homebrew, apk, Nix, dnf

Project links

• Homepage
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• ip2location

Project history

The project belongs to IP2Location's family of language libraries for its commercial and LITE geolocation databases. Its README describes lookups for country, region, city, coordinates, postal code, ISP, domain, usage type, address type, IAB category, ASN, and related database fields, with the library reading those values from IP2Location BIN files.

The changelog shows a long 2010s evolution around data-file formats and API breadth: 2013 added memory and cache opening modes, 2014 added IPv6 support, 2016 added lookup support for an index section in a new BIN format, and later releases moved detailed notes to GitHub releases.

Adoption history

The Homebrew formula and other package-manager metadata make the C library easy to install on developer machines and servers that need local IP geolocation without a hosted API call. Its Fedora package links from the upstream README show the project also reaching Linux distribution packaging.

The project is not just a single CLI convenience: related IP2Location modules, such as the Varnish module, depend on the C library as the native lookup layer, which gives the package importance beyond direct command-line use.

How it is used

Typical usage is to install the library, obtain an IP2Location BIN database, and run `ip2location -d [database] --ip [address]` or feed addresses from a file. Library consumers use the C API where a low-level native geolocation lookup is preferable to shelling out.

The package is useful in log enrichment, local analytics, security tooling, and edge services where repeat geolocation lookups should avoid network latency or third-party API calls.

Why package nerds care

For package maintainers, IP2Location C Library is a classic data-plus-native-library package: the code is small, the value comes from compatibility with external database files, and downstream packaging must keep the CLI, shared library, sample data, and documentation aligned.

It also illustrates a common Homebrew pattern for vendor-backed data tooling: a permissively licensed client library shipped separately from the proprietary or separately licensed data products it reads.

Timeline

• 2013: Version 6.0.0 added memory, cache, and shared-memory opening and cleanup APIs.
• 2014: Version 7.0.0 added IPv6 support and removed the IMath library dependency.
• 2016: Version 8.0.0 added lookup support for the index section in a newer BIN format.
• 2017: Version 8.0.5 closed out the in-file changelog era before release notes moved to GitHub releases.
• 2023: The 8.6.x releases continued the GitHub release stream.
• 2025: Version 8.7.0 was published through GitHub releases.

Related projects

• Related upstream projects include the IP2Location database products, IP2Location LITE sample databases, language-specific IP2Location libraries, and modules such as IP2Location-Varnish that use the C library as a dependency.
• At the package level it sits near tools such as GeoIP and libmaxminddb, but it is tied to the IP2Location BIN database format rather than MaxMind's MMDB format.

Sources

• https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/ip2location
• https://github.com/ip2location/IP2Location-C-Library
• https://github.com/ip2location/IP2Location-C-Library/blob/master/ChangeLog
• https://www.ip2location.com/documentation/ip2location-libraries/c