brew

Install uchardet with Homebrew, apk, apt, dnf, MacPorts, pacman, winget, zypper

Encoding detector library. Version 0.0.8 via Homebrew; verified from local package data.

Install command Security notes

install

Additional install commands

macOS

Homebrewverified · 100%

brew install uchardet

local Homebrew formula metadata

MacPortsverified · 94%

sudo port install uchardet

MacPorts ports tree · textproc/uchardet/Portfile · source: api.github.com

Linux

Alpine Linux apkverified · 92%

sudo apk add uchardet

Alpine Linux edge package indexes · uchardet · source: dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org

Debian aptverified · 92%

sudo apt install libuchardet-dev

Debian stable package indexes · libuchardet-dev · source: deb.debian.org

Fedora dnfverified · 92%

sudo dnf install uchardet

Fedora Rawhide package metadata · uchardet · source: dl.fedoraproject.org

Arch Linux pacmanverified · 92%

sudo pacman -S uchardet

Arch Linux sync databases · uchardet · source: geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com

openSUSE zypperverified · 92%

sudo zypper install libuchardet-devel

openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata · libuchardet-devel · source: download.opensuse.org

Windows

Windows Package Managerverified · 92%

winget install --id PolarGoose.uchardet -e

Windows Package Manager source index · PolarGoose.uchardet · source: cdn.winget.microsoft.com

overview

Package summary

Encoding detector library

Project links

Commands and aliases

uchardet

history

Project history and usage

uchardet is a character encoding detector library and CLI derived from Mozilla's universal charset detector work. It takes unknown bytes and attempts to identify the text encoding, returning iconv-compatible names, which makes it useful in editors, import pipelines, file tools, and packaging workflows that handle legacy text.

Project history

The freedesktop.org project page says uchardet started as a C language binding of Mozilla's original C++ universal charset detection library. The current README broadens that description to an encoding and language detector that now detects more charsets and more reliably than the original implementation while remaining reasonably fast.

The project moved from BYVoid's earlier GitHub repository to freedesktop hosting. The old repository now tells users that uchardet is a freedesktop project and points to the freedesktop page, bug tracker, releases, and code location.

freedesktop.org lists uchardet 0.0.8 as the last release on 2022-12-08, with earlier release tarballs for 0.0.6 in 2016 and 0.0.7 in 2020. The current project page links GitLab issues for bugs and patches and the GitLab repository for development code.

Adoption history

uchardet is adopted wherever package users need an embeddable encoding detector rather than a full application. The batch input shows packages for Homebrew, Alpine, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, MacPorts, winget, and openSUSE-style systems, often split as library/development packages on Linux.

Its niche persists because encoding detection remains a practical problem for command-line text processing and data import. A small C/C++ library with iconv-compatible output is easy for downstream language bindings, desktop tools, and scripts to depend on.

How it is used

As a library, uchardet is used by passing bytes with no extra encoding information and receiving a likely encoding name, plus language detection in the current README. As a package, the uchardet executable gives shell users a direct way to inspect files before conversion or ingestion.

The supported-encodings list on freedesktop.org covers Unicode encodings plus many regional legacy encodings for Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Cyrillic, Central European, Western European, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese, and other text families.

Why package nerds care

uchardet is package-nerd significant because it is infrastructure: it rarely sits at the center of a user's workflow, but it helps many tools make better guesses about old or mislabeled text.

Its history also shows a common open-source maintenance path: a useful standalone project migrates from a personal GitHub repository to freedesktop infrastructure, gains release tarballs and issue tracking there, and remains widely packaged as both a command and a development library.

Timeline

2015: The old BYVoid GitHub repository lists version 0.0.5 as its latest release before the freedesktop move.
2016: freedesktop.org publishes uchardet 0.0.6 release tarballs.
2020: freedesktop.org publishes uchardet 0.0.7 release tarballs.
2022: freedesktop.org publishes uchardet 0.0.8 and lists it as the last release.

Related projects

Mozilla's universal charset detector is the direct upstream lineage named by the project.
iconv/libiconv is the compatibility target for returned encoding names.
Language bindings and downstream packages use uchardet as a small encoding-detection dependency.

Sources

security posture

Risk level: green

library-like package without higher-risk signals.

Risk classifier

green risk · low confidence · appliance

Why

library-like package without higher-risk signals

Signals

metadata:library-like

Install behavior

No Homebrew post-install hook is recorded in formula metadata.
Homebrew bottle metadata is available for 12 platform targets.
Build metadata lists 1 build 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

Command	Kind	Exposure	Note
`uchardet`	cli	global 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 version0.0.8

manager updated

local dataok

upstreamnot checked

latest detectednot detected

https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/uchardet/

infoNo package-manager update timestamp was available.low confidence
infoRelease/tag comparison is only available for GitHub repositories.https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/uchardet/none confidence

install metadata

Package metadata

Package key	brew:uchardet
Version	0.0.8
Package manager	Homebrew
Package manager page	https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/uchardet
Homepage	https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/uchardet/
Repository	https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/uchardet/uchardet
Upstream docs	https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/uchardet
License	MPL-1.1 OR GPL-2.0-or-later OR LGPL-2.1-or-later
Source archive	https://www.freedesktop.org/software/uchardet/releases/uchardet-0.0.8.tar.xz
Build dependencies	cmake
Bottle	available (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-install	not defined
Service	none declared

registry facts

Source database details

Source Database	Homebrew formula API
Tap	homebrew/core
Full Name	uchardet
Version Scheme	0
Revision	0
Head Version	HEAD
Bottle Stable Root URL	https://ghcr.io/v2/homebrew/core
Deprecated	no
Disabled	no
Keg Only	no
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%

libuchardet-dev 0.0.8-1+b2

universal charset detection library - development files

https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/uchardet/

sudo apt install libuchardet-dev

Section: libdevel
Architecture: amd64
Source Package: uchardet
2 dependencies
normalized package name match
Matched by: Uchardet

Debian stable package indexes · deb.debian.org · Debian stable package indexes: libuchardet-dev from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz

Debian apt95%

libuchardet0 0.0.8-1+b2

universal charset detection library - shared library

https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/uchardet/

sudo apt install libuchardet0

Section: libs
Architecture: amd64
Source Package: uchardet
3 dependencies
normalized package name match
Matched by: Uchardet

Debian stable package indexes · deb.debian.org · Debian stable package indexes: libuchardet0 from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz

Debian apt95%

uchardet 0.0.8-1+b2

universal charset detection library - cli utility

https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/uchardet/

sudo apt install uchardet

Section: utils
Architecture: amd64
Source Package: uchardet
2 dependencies
normalized package name match
Matched by: Uchardet

Debian stable package indexes · deb.debian.org · Debian stable package indexes: uchardet from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz

Ubuntu apt95%

libuchardet-dev 0.0.8-1build1

universal charset detection library - development files

https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/uchardet/

sudo apt install libuchardet-dev

Section: libdevel
Architecture: amd64
Source Package: uchardet
2 dependencies
normalized package name match
Matched by: Uchardet

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes · archive.ubuntu.com · Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: libuchardet-dev from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/main/binary-amd64/Packages.gz

Ubuntu apt95%

libuchardet0 0.0.8-1build1

universal charset detection library - shared library

https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/uchardet/

sudo apt install libuchardet0

Section: libs
Architecture: amd64
Source Package: uchardet
3 dependencies
normalized package name match
Matched by: Uchardet

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes · archive.ubuntu.com · Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: libuchardet0 from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/main/binary-amd64/Packages.gz

Ubuntu apt95%

uchardet 0.0.8-1build1

universal charset detection library - cli utility

https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/uchardet/

sudo apt install uchardet

Section: utils
Architecture: amd64
2 dependencies
normalized package name match
Matched by: Uchardet

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes · archive.ubuntu.com · Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: uchardet from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/main/binary-amd64/Packages.gz

apk95%

uchardet 0.0.8-r2

Encoding detector library ported from Mozilla

https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/uchardet

sudo apk add uchardet

License: MPL-1.1
Architecture: x86_64
Source Package: uchardet
1 dependencies
1 provides
normalized package name match
Matched by: Uchardet

Alpine Linux edge package indexes · dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org · Alpine Linux edge package indexes: uchardet from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz

apk95%

uchardet-dev 0.0.8-r2

Encoding detector library ported from Mozilla (development files)

https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/uchardet

sudo apk add uchardet-dev

License: MPL-1.1
Architecture: x86_64
Source Package: uchardet
1 dependencies
1 provides
normalized package name match
Matched by: Uchardet

Alpine Linux edge package indexes · dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org · Alpine Linux edge package indexes: uchardet-dev from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz

apk95%

uchardet-doc 0.0.8-r2

Encoding detector library ported from Mozilla (documentation)

https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/uchardet

sudo apk add uchardet-doc

License: MPL-1.1
Architecture: x86_64
Source Package: uchardet
normalized package name match
Matched by: Uchardet

Alpine Linux edge package indexes · dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org · Alpine Linux edge package indexes: uchardet-doc from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz

apk95%

uchardet-libs 0.0.8-r2

Encoding detector library ported from Mozilla (libraries)

https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/uchardet

sudo apk add uchardet-libs

License: MPL-1.1
Architecture: x86_64
Source Package: uchardet
1 dependencies
1 provides
normalized package name match
Matched by: Uchardet

Alpine Linux edge package indexes · dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org · Alpine Linux edge package indexes: uchardet-libs from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz

apk95%

uchardet-static 0.0.8-r2

Encoding detector library ported from Mozilla (static library)

https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/uchardet

sudo apk add uchardet-static

License: MPL-1.1
Architecture: x86_64
Source Package: uchardet
normalized package name match
Matched by: Uchardet

Alpine Linux edge package indexes · dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org · Alpine Linux edge package indexes: uchardet-static from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz

dnf95%

uchardet 0.0.8-10.fc44

An encoding detector library ported from Mozilla

https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/uchardet

sudo dnf install uchardet

License: MPL-1.1 OR GPL-2.0-or-later OR LGPL-2.0-or-later
Category: Unspecified
Architecture: i686
Source Package: uchardet
4 dependencies
2 provides
normalized package name match
Matched by: Uchardet

Fedora Rawhide package metadata · dl.fedoraproject.org · Fedora Rawhide package metadata: uchardet from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/e5ca8ce900cd68f5419e1c39ae517343100b306336cbaeb70a3c153121d95094-primary.xml.zst

dnf95%

uchardet-devel 0.0.8-10.fc44

Development files for uchardet

https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/uchardet

sudo dnf install uchardet-devel

License: MPL-1.1 OR GPL-2.0-or-later OR LGPL-2.0-or-later
Category: Unspecified
Architecture: i686
Source Package: uchardet
4 dependencies
3 provides
normalized package name match
Matched by: Uchardet

Fedora Rawhide package metadata · dl.fedoraproject.org · Fedora Rawhide package metadata: uchardet-devel from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/e5ca8ce900cd68f5419e1c39ae517343100b306336cbaeb70a3c153121d95094-primary.xml.zst

pacman95%

uchardet 0.0.8-4

Encoding detector library ported from Mozilla

https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/uchardet

sudo pacman -S uchardet

License: MPL-1.1
Architecture: x86_64
3 dependencies
normalized package name match
Matched by: Uchardet

Arch Linux sync databases · geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com · Arch Linux sync databases: uchardet from https://geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com/extra/os/x86_64/extra.db.tar.gz

zypper95%

libuchardet-devel 0.0.8-2.3

Universal Charset Detection Library

https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/uchardet/

sudo zypper install libuchardet-devel

License: GPL-2.0-or-later OR MPL-1.1 OR LGPL-2.1-or-later
Category: Unspecified
Architecture: x86_64
Source Package: uchardet
2 dependencies
3 provides
normalized package name match
Matched by: Uchardet

openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata · download.opensuse.org · openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: libuchardet-devel from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/be8d3611d25469107f32075a1697e69ec57a2b850b42348a658cc671ad5ec2b50760d02c3e59524d50da9a11d5be799bdaffba2e166e8ca8858512e3c0bd665d-primary.xml.zst

zypper95%

libuchardet0 0.0.8-2.3

Universal Charset Detection Library

https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/uchardet/

sudo zypper install libuchardet0

License: GPL-2.0-or-later OR MPL-1.1 OR LGPL-2.1-or-later
Category: Unspecified
Architecture: x86_64
Source Package: uchardet
4 dependencies
2 provides
normalized package name match
Matched by: Uchardet

openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata · download.opensuse.org · openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: libuchardet0 from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/be8d3611d25469107f32075a1697e69ec57a2b850b42348a658cc671ad5ec2b50760d02c3e59524d50da9a11d5be799bdaffba2e166e8ca8858512e3c0bd665d-primary.xml.zst

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.

Combined YAML source

View the package source record on GitHub.

combined/uchardet.yml

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

Install uchardet with Homebrew, apk, apt, dnf, MacPorts, pacman, winget, zypper

Additional install commands

macOS

Linux

Windows

Package summary

Project links

Commands and aliases

Project history and usage

Project history

Adoption history

How it is used

Why package nerds care

Timeline

Related projects

Sources

Risk level: green

Risk classifier

Why

Signals

Install behavior

Recommended review

Installed executables

Version and freshness

Package metadata

Source database details

Other package-manager records

Internal package links

Topical hubs

Related tools

Same workflow

Agent security guides

Generated from repository data

Combined YAML source

Used sources