brew

Install wayland with Homebrew, apk, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, zypper

Protocol for a compositor to talk to its clients. Version 1.25.0 via Homebrew; verified from local package data.

Install command Security notes

install

Additional install commands

macOS

Homebrewverified · 100%

brew install wayland

local Homebrew formula metadata

MacPortsverified · 94%

sudo port install wayland

MacPorts ports tree · devel/wayland/Portfile · source: api.github.com

Linux

Alpine Linux apkverified · 92%

sudo apk add wayland

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

Debian aptverified · 92%

sudo apt install libwayland-bin

Debian stable package indexes · libwayland-bin · source: deb.debian.org

Fedora dnfverified · 92%

sudo dnf install libwayland-client

Fedora Rawhide package metadata · libwayland-client · source: dl.fedoraproject.org

Nixverified · 92%

nix profile install nixpkgs#wayland

nixpkgs package indexes · wayland · source: raw.githubusercontent.com

Arch Linux pacmanverified · 92%

sudo pacman -S wayland

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

openSUSE zypperverified · 92%

sudo zypper install libwayland-client0

openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata · libwayland-client0 · source: download.opensuse.org

overview

Package summary

Protocol for a compositor to talk to its clients

Project links

Commands and aliases

wayland-scanner

history

Project history and usage

Wayland is a display protocol, C IPC library, and Linux graphics architecture that moves the display server role into the compositor. It is the long-running successor architecture to X11 in modern Linux desktops, while `wayland-scanner` and libwayland remain the package-manager-facing pieces developers install.

Project history

The official Wayland site describes Wayland as a replacement for the X11 protocol and architecture, intended to be easier to develop, extend, and maintain. Its architecture page explains the core shift: under X, the X server sits between clients, compositors, input, and rendering; under Wayland, the compositor receives input, manages the scene, and accepts client buffers directly.

Wayland and Weston reached 1.0.0 on 2012-10-22, a release the project says marked stable protocol and client-side APIs. The core stack later split into a family of release streams: Wayland for the protocol and C libraries, Weston as a reference compositor, wayland-protocols for shared extensions, and wayland-utils for inspection/debugging.

The first wayland-protocols 1.0 release appeared on 2015-11-24. That extension repository became the place where desktop and application protocols could be reviewed and staged, including stable, staging, deprecated, and legacy unstable protocol phases.

Adoption history

Wayland adoption was gradual because it replaces a core desktop substrate and depends on graphics drivers, compositors, toolkits, screen capture paths, remote desktop flows, and XWayland compatibility. GNOME's 3.22 release notes in 2016 framed Wayland as the next-generation display/input technology for GNU/Linux, and Fedora's Fedora 25 change moved GNOME's display manager/session default to Wayland with Xorg fallback.

KDE followed a slower route through Plasma and KWin. Fedora's Plasma Wayland-by-default change for Fedora 34 stated that KDE Plasma Desktop would use Wayland while X applications continued through XWayland, and KDE's Plasma 6 mega-release in 2024 made Wayland the preferred modern Plasma path.

How it is used

For application and compositor developers, the Homebrew-visible tool is `wayland-scanner`, which turns XML protocol descriptions into C headers and glue code. Runtime use is usually indirect: a toolkit such as GTK, Qt, SDL, GLFW, or a compositor such as GNOME Shell, KWin, Sway, Weston, or gamescope links against libwayland and speaks the protocol.

For users and packagers, Wayland is not a command-line application so much as a foundational runtime component. It is installed because compositors, toolkits, screen portals, XWayland, and protocol extension packages need a shared ABI and protocol generator.

Why package nerds care

Wayland is package-nerd significant because it changed Linux desktop dependency graphs. Installing a graphical application stack now often pulls in libwayland-client, libwayland-server, wayland-protocols, xdg-desktop-portal, and XWayland rather than assuming an Xorg-only world.

It also turned protocol XML into a build-time artifact: packages commonly use `wayland-scanner` to generate source from protocol definitions, which makes the small `wayland` package important even on systems that never launch Weston.

Timeline

2012-10-22: Wayland and Weston 1.0.0 are released, marking stable protocol and client-side APIs.
2015-11-24: wayland-protocols 1.0 is released.
2016-09-20: Wayland and Weston 1.12 are released around the Fedora 25/GNOME Wayland default transition period.
2018-04-09: Wayland 1.15 and Weston 4.0 are released.
2024-02-28: KDE Plasma 6 ships as part of KDE's MegaRelease 6 with Wayland as the modern default path.
2026-03-19: Wayland 1.25.0 is released.

Related projects

Closely related projects include Weston, wayland-protocols, wayland-utils, XWayland, Mesa, Linux DRM/KMS, GNOME Shell/Mutter, KDE KWin/Plasma, wlroots, Sway, xdg-desktop-portal, GTK, and Qt.

Sources

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:client

Install behavior

No Homebrew post-install hook is recorded in formula metadata.
Homebrew bottle metadata is available for 2 platform targets.
Installs with 3 runtime dependencies.
Build metadata lists 3 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
`wayland-scanner`	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 version1.25.0

manager updated

local dataok

upstreamnot checked

latest detectednot detected

https://wayland.freedesktop.org

infoNo package-manager update timestamp was available.low confidence
infoRelease/tag comparison is only available for GitHub repositories.https://wayland.freedesktop.orgnone confidence

install metadata

Package metadata

Package key	brew:wayland
Version	1.25.0
Package manager	Homebrew
Package manager page	https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/wayland
Homepage	https://wayland.freedesktop.org
Repository	https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wayland/wayland
Upstream docs	https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wayland/wayland/-/blob/main/README.md
License	MIT
Source archive	https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wayland/wayland/-/releases/1.25.0/downloads/wayland-1.25.0.tar.xz
Dependencies	expat, libffi, libxml2
Build dependencies	meson, ninja, pkgconf
Bottle	available (on arm64_linux, 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	wayland
Version Scheme	0
Revision	0
Requirements	linux
Bottle Stable Root URL	https://ghcr.io/v2/homebrew/core
Deprecated	no
Disabled	no
Keg Only	no
URL Keys	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%

libwayland-bin 1.23.1-3

wayland compositor infrastructure - binary utilities