Install netaddr with Homebrew

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• netaddr

Project history

The changelog shows public releases dating back at least to 0.4 on August 7, 2008 and credits the documentation copyright to David P. D. Moss in 2008 and netaddr contributors from 2020 onward. The project moved through a long 0.7.x era before renewed 2020s maintenance led to 1.x releases.

The 2024 1.0.0 release deliberately removed older compatibility behavior, including support for Python versions lower than 3.7 and permissive IPv4 parsing defaults. Releases through 1.3.0 continued tightening parsing behavior, metadata, and modern Python support.

Adoption history

netaddr sits in the space where Python's standard `ipaddress` module is sometimes too narrow: bulk range formats, IPSet union/intersection behavior, OUI/IAB lookups, nmap/glob-style ranges, and convenience conversion workflows.

Homebrew usage is small because most users get netaddr through PyPI or Linux distro Python packages. The formula page showed 273 installs in the 365-day Homebrew window, all on request, which fits a Python-library package exposed as a convenience CLI.

How it is used

Programmatic users import `IPAddress`, `IPNetwork`, `IPRange`, `IPSet`, and helpers such as CIDR summarization functions to parse inventories, IPAM exports, firewall allowlists, scanner output, and address databases. The tutorials emphasize creating addresses, subnets, ranges, and sets, then doing set operations such as union, intersection, and difference.

The `netaddr` CLI exists, but the docs warn that it is intended for humans and should not be treated as a stable scripting interface. Package users who need stable automation should use the Python API.

Why package nerds care

netaddr is useful packaging-wise because it is a pure Python networking toolbox with a long compatibility tail. It often appears where operations code needs richer address math than the standard library offered when the code was written.

Timeline

• 2008-08-07: 0.4 release listed in the changelog.
• 2008-09-19: 0.5 release listed, with internal descriptor and aggregate-class changes.
• 2009-08-11: 0.7 release listed in the changelog.
• 2020-07-03: 0.8.0 released after the long 0.7.x line.
• 2024-02-10: 1.0.0 released with Python-version and parsing cleanups.
• 2024-05-28: 1.3.0 released.

Related projects

• Python ipaddress
• netaddr CLI
• IPAM tools
• nmap target formats

Sources

• https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/netaddr
• https://netaddr.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
• https://netaddr.readthedocs.io/en/latest/changes.html
• https://netaddr.readthedocs.io/en/latest/reference/cli.html
• https://netaddr.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorial_01.html
• https://netaddr.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorial_03.html
• https://pypi.org/project/netaddr/