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brew

Install montage with Homebrew, apt, MacPorts

Toolkit for assembling FITS images into custom mosaics. Version 6.0 via Homebrew; verified 2026-06-25.

Install commandSecurity notes

install

Additional install commands

macOS

Homebrewverified · 100%
brew install montage

local Homebrew formula metadata

MacPortsverified · 94%
sudo port install montage

MacPorts ports tree · science/montage/Portfile · source: api.github.com

Linux

Debian aptverified · 92%
sudo apt install montage

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

overview

Package summary

Toolkit for assembling FITS images into custom mosaics

Commands and aliases

  • mAdd
  • mAddCube
  • mArchiveExec
  • mArchiveGet
  • mArchiveList
  • mBackground
  • mBestImage
  • mBgExec
  • mBgModel
  • mCalExec
  • mCalibrate
  • mCatMap
  • mCatSearch
  • mConcatFit
  • mConvert
  • mCoverageCheck
  • mDAG
  • mDAGFiles
  • mDAGGalacticPlane
  • mDAGTbls
  • mDiff
  • mDiffExec
  • mDiffFit
  • mDiffFitExec
  • mExamine
  • mExec
  • mExecTG
  • mFitExec
  • mFitplane
  • mFixHdr
  • mFixNaN
  • mFlattenExec

history

Project history and usage

Montage is an astronomy image-mosaicking toolkit associated with Caltech/IPAC and the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive. A 2008 CaltechAUTHORS record for the chapter "Web-based tools-montage: An astronomical image mosaic engine" lists G. Bruce Berriman, J. C. Good, A. C. Laity, J. C. Jacob, D. S. Katz, E. Deelman, G. Singh, and M.-H. Su among the creators, notes NASA and Caltech funding, and says the code is maintained by IRSA. The same record describes the central design promise: preserve calibration and astrometric fidelity while producing user-specified mosaics in astronomy coordinate systems and projections.

Project history

Technically, Montage became important because it is not only a monolithic mosaic maker. Its tools expose separate steps for image geometry analysis, reprojection, background matching, metadata table building, coaddition, and visualization, which is why the Homebrew package ships many small commands such as mProject, mDiff, mBgModel, mAdd, mImgtbl, mMakeHdr, and mViewer-related utilities. The Caltech record emphasizes ANSI C portability across Unix-like desktop, cluster, and supercomputer environments; later IPAC publication metadata describes it as a scalable C toolkit for FITS mosaics used in astronomy and information-technology communities for research, product generation, cyber-infrastructure, and visualization workflows.

How it is used

In practice, Montage sits in the scientific-command-line niche rather than the general image-processing niche. Astronomers use it to assemble science-grade FITS mosaics from survey or user images while keeping World Coordinate System metadata meaningful; workflow systems and archive services can compose its executables into larger pipelines. Version 5-era work added visualization features around mViewer, HEALPix input, and TOAST organization for WorldWide Telescope-style consumption, broadening the toolkit from mosaic generation into reproducible visual data products.

security posture

Risk level: blue

broad file, network, media, or database tool signal.

Risk classifier

blue risk · medium confidence · tool

Why

  • broad file, network, media, or database tool signal

Signals

  • text:archive,image

Install behavior

  • No Homebrew post-install hook is recorded in formula metadata.
  • Homebrew bottle metadata is available for 12 platform targets.
  • Installs with 3 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
mAddcliglobal executable
mAddCubecliglobal executable
mArchiveExeccliglobal executable
mArchiveGetcliglobal executable
mArchiveListcliglobal executable
mBackgroundcliglobal executable
mBestImagecliglobal executable
mBgExeccliglobal executable
mBgModelcliglobal executable
mCalExeccliglobal executable
mCalibratecliglobal executable
mCatMapcliglobal executable
mCatSearchcliglobal executable
mConcatFitcliglobal executable
mConvertcliglobal executable
mCoverageCheckcliglobal executable
mDAGcliglobal executable
mDAGFilescliglobal executable
mDAGGalacticPlanecliglobal executable
mDAGTblscliglobal executable
mDiffcliglobal executable
mDiffExeccliglobal executable
mDiffFitcliglobal executable
mDiffFitExeccliglobal executable
mExaminecliglobal executable
mExeccliglobal executable
mExecTGcliglobal executable
mFitExeccliglobal executable
mFitplanecliglobal executable
mFixHdrcliglobal executable
mFixNaNcliglobal executable
mFlattenExeccliglobal executable
mGetHdrcliglobal executable
mGridExeccliglobal executable
mHdrcliglobal executable
mHdrCheckcliglobal executable
mHdrWWTcliglobal executable
mHdrWWTExeccliglobal executable
mHdrtblcliglobal executable
mHistogramcliglobal executable
mImgtblcliglobal executable
mMakeHdrcliglobal executable
mMakeImgcliglobal executable
mNotifycliglobal executable
mNotifyTGcliglobal executable
mOverlapscliglobal executable
mPNGWWTExeccliglobal executable
mPadcliglobal executable
mPix2Coordcliglobal executable
mPresentationcliglobal executable
mProjWWTExeccliglobal executable
mProjectcliglobal executable
mProjectCubecliglobal executable
mProjectPPcliglobal executable
mProjectQLcliglobal executable
mPutHdrcliglobal executable
mRotatecliglobal executable
mShrinkcliglobal executable
mShrinkCubecliglobal executable
mShrinkHdrcliglobal executable
mSubCubecliglobal executable
mSubimagecliglobal executable
mTblExeccliglobal executable
mTblSortcliglobal executable
mTileHdrcliglobal executable
mTileImagecliglobal executable
mTransposecliglobal 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 version6.0
manager updated2026-06-25
local dataok
upstreamnot checked
latest detectednot detected

http://montage.ipac.caltech.edu

install metadata

Package metadata

Package keybrew:montage
Version6.0
Package managerHomebrew
Package manager pagehttps://formulae.brew.sh/formula/montage
Homepagehttp://montage.ipac.caltech.edu
Repositoryhttps://github.com/Caltech-IPAC/Montage
Upstream docshttps://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/Montage/docs
LicenseBSD-3-Clause
Source archivehttps://distfiles.macports.org/montage/Montage_v6.0.tar.gz
Last updated2026-06-25T13:37:55+02:00
Pulseupdated
Dependenciescfitsio, freetype, jpeg-turbo
Uses from macOSbzip2
Bottleavailable (on arm64_big_sur, arm64_linux, arm64_monterey, arm64_sequoia, arm64_sonoma, arm64_tahoe, arm64_ventura, big_sur, monterey, sonoma, ventura, x86_64_linux)
Homebrew post-installnot defined
Servicenone declared
CaveatsMontage is under the Caltech/JPL non-exclusive, non-commercial software licence agreement available at: http://montage.ipac.caltech.edu/docs/download.html

registry facts

Source database details

Source DatabaseHomebrew formula API
Taphomebrew/core
Full Namemontage
Version Scheme0
Revision1
Head VersionHEAD
Conflicts With
  • wdiff
Bottle Stable Root URLhttps://ghcr.io/v2/homebrew/core
Deprecatedno
Disabledno
Keg Onlyno
URL Keys
  • head
  • 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%

montage 6.1+dfsg-1+b1

Toolkit for assembling FITS images into mosaics

http://montage.ipac.caltech.edu/

sudo apt install montage
  • Section: science
  • Architecture: amd64
  • Source Package: montage
  • 7 dependencies
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Montage
Debian stable package indexes · deb.debian.org · Debian stable package indexes: montage from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz
Debian apt95%

montage-gridtools 6.1+dfsg-1+b1

Create files to run montage on the grid

http://montage.ipac.caltech.edu/

sudo apt install montage-gridtools
  • Section: science
  • Architecture: amd64
  • Source Package: montage
  • 3 dependencies
  • 2 optional deps
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Montage
Debian stable package indexes · deb.debian.org · Debian stable package indexes: montage-gridtools from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz
Debian apt95%

python3-montagepy 6.1+dfsg-1+b1

Python toolkit for assembling FITS images into mosaics

http://montage.ipac.caltech.edu/

sudo apt install python3-montagepy
  • Section: python
  • Architecture: amd64
  • Source Package: montage
  • 8 dependencies
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Montage
Debian stable package indexes · deb.debian.org · Debian stable package indexes: python3-montagepy from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz
Ubuntu apt95%

montage 6.0+dfsg-9

Toolkit for assembling FITS images into mosaics

http://montage.ipac.caltech.edu/

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

montage-gridtools 6.0+dfsg-9

Create files to run montage on the grid

http://montage.ipac.caltech.edu/

sudo apt install montage-gridtools
  • Section: universe/science
  • Architecture: amd64
  • Source Package: montage
  • 3 dependencies
  • 2 optional deps
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Montage
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes · archive.ubuntu.com · Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: montage-gridtools from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz
Ubuntu apt95%

python3-montagepy 6.0+dfsg-9

Python toolkit for assembling FITS images into mosaics

http://montage.ipac.caltech.edu/

sudo apt install python3-montagepy
  • Section: universe/python
  • Architecture: amd64
  • Source Package: montage
  • 8 dependencies
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Montage
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes · archive.ubuntu.com · Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: python3-montagepy from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz
MacPorts95%

montage

sudo port install montage
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Montage
MacPorts ports tree · api.github.com · MacPorts ports tree: science/montage/Portfile from https://api.github.com/repos/macports/macports-ports/git/trees/master?recursive=1

package graph

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

Related tools

  • cfitsioRuntime dependency declared by Homebrew.
  • freetypeRuntime dependency declared by Homebrew.
  • jpeg-turboRuntime dependency declared by Homebrew.

Same workflow

  • wcstoolsShares av.db curated category or tags: astronomy, cli, fits, image-processing, science.
  • ccfitsShares av.db curated category or tags: astronomy, cli, fits, science.
  • gnuastroShares av.db curated category or tags: astronomy, cli, fits, science.
  • sirilShares av.db curated category or tags: astronomy, cli, image-processing, science.
  • wcslibShares av.db curated category or tags: astronomy, cli, fits, science.
  • calcephShares av.db curated category or tags: astronomy, cli, science.

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