# Install wcslib with Homebrew, apk, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, zypper Library and utilities for the FITS World Coordinate System. Version 8.9 via Homebrew; verified 2026-06-25. ## Install ```sh sudo av install brew:wcslib ``` Additional install commands: ### macOS - Homebrew (100%): ```sh brew install wcslib ``` Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata - MacPorts (94%): ```sh sudo port install wcslib ``` Evidence: MacPorts ports tree: science/wcslib/Portfile from https://api.github.com/repos/macports/macports-ports/git/trees/master?recursive=1 ### Linux - apk (92%): ```sh sudo apk add wcslib ``` Evidence: Alpine Linux edge package indexes: wcslib from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz - Debian apt (92%): ```sh sudo apt install libpgsbox8 ``` Evidence: Debian stable package indexes: libpgsbox8 from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz - dnf (92%): ```sh sudo dnf install wcslib ``` Evidence: Fedora Rawhide package metadata: wcslib from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/e5ca8ce900cd68f5419e1c39ae517343100b306336cbaeb70a3c153121d95094-primary.xml.zst - Nix (92%): ```sh nix profile install nixpkgs#wcslib ``` Evidence: nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/wc/wcslib/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1 - pacman (92%): ```sh sudo pacman -S wcslib ``` Evidence: Arch Linux sync databases: wcslib from https://geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com/extra/os/x86_64/extra.db.tar.gz - zypper (92%): ```sh sudo zypper install libwcs8 ``` Evidence: openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: libwcs8 from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/be8d3611d25469107f32075a1697e69ec57a2b850b42348a658cc671ad5ec2b50760d02c3e59524d50da9a11d5be799bdaffba2e166e8ca8858512e3c0bd665d-primary.xml.zst ## Package facts - **Package key:** brew:wcslib - **Package manager:** Homebrew - **Package manager page:** - **Version:** 8.9 - **Source summary:** Library and utilities for the FITS World Coordinate System - **Homepage:** - **Upstream docs:** - **License:** LGPL-3.0-or-later - **Source archive:** - **Last updated:** 2026-06-25T13:38:12+02:00 - **Generated:** 2026-07-08T18:08:21+00:00 ## Executables - HPXcvt (cli) - fitshdr (cli) - sundazel (cli) - tofits (cli) - wcsware (cli) - HPXcvt (alias) - fitshdr (alias) - sundazel (alias) - tofits (alias) - wcsware (alias) ## Dependencies - cfitsio ## Install behavior - Post-install hook: not defined - Bottle: available on arm64_linux, arm64_sequoia, arm64_sonoma, arm64_tahoe, sonoma, x86_64_linux ## Freshness - Page generated: 2026-07-08 - Package-manager version: 8.9 - Package-manager updated: 2026-06-25 - Local data: ok - Upstream repository: https://www.atnf.csiro.au/computing/software/wcs/ - info: Release/tag comparison is only available for GitHub repositories. ## Project history and usage WCSLIB is Mark Calabretta's C implementation of the FITS World Coordinate System standards, with Fortran wrappers and command-line utilities. It is one of the quiet infrastructure libraries behind astronomical FITS image, cube, and spectral coordinate handling. ### Project history The WCSLIB manual identifies it as an implementation of the FITS WCS standard and carries copyright dates beginning in 1995. The surrounding FITSWCS site ties the library to the formal WCS papers by Greisen, Calabretta, and collaborators that standardized how FITS headers describe pixel-to-world transformations. The FITSWCS literature page records the first two core WCS papers in Astronomy & Astrophysics in 2002: Paper I on world coordinates in FITS and Paper II on celestial coordinates. Later papers extended the standard to spectral coordinates in 2006, HEALPix/HPX in 2007, the XPH butterfly projection in 2013, and time coordinates in 2015. WCSLIB grew alongside those standards as a reference-quality implementation for projection math, coordinate transformations, test data, Fortran bindings, and utilities. The upstream site notes that, as of release 8.5, RCS version files are included in the distribution to document changes since v1.0. ### Adoption history WCSLIB adoption is strongest in astronomy software stacks that read, validate, transform, or display FITS WCS headers. NASA's FITS WCS page lists WCSLIB among the software libraries available for the WCS conventions, and Astropy's `astropy.wcs` documentation says its low-level core WCS support is based on Mark Calabretta's wcslib. The batch package metadata shows WCSLIB packaged across Homebrew, Alpine, Debian/Ubuntu, Fedora, MacPorts, Nix, Arch, and openSUSE. That broad distro presence reflects its role as a shared scientific dependency rather than an end-user application. ### How it is used Developers use WCSLIB from C or Fortran to parse FITS headers, initialize WCS data structures, and convert between pixel coordinates and celestial, spectral, time, or other world coordinates. Command-line utilities such as `fitshdr`, `wcsware`, `HPXcvt`, `sundazel`, and `tofits` expose parts of that functionality for inspection, conversion, and testing. In the wider Python ecosystem, many users meet WCSLIB indirectly through Astropy, where FITS WCS transformations are presented through high-level and low-level APIs. The same underlying package matters to observatory pipelines, map projection tools, FITS validators, and visualization programs that need consistent coordinate behavior. ### Why package nerds care WCSLIB is package-nerd significant because it packages a domain standard's math, edge cases, and historical compatibility into a reusable native library. Scientific package managers care about it for the same reason they care about CFITSIO: a small C library becomes the coordination point between decades of file-format convention and modern language bindings. Its utilities also make it useful outside library linking. A maintainer debugging a FITS header can install the package and inspect WCS interpretation from the shell, which is often faster than writing a short scientific Python script just to discover whether a header is malformed. ### Timeline - 1995: WCSLIB copyright history begins in the upstream manual. - 2002: FITS WCS Papers I and II are published in Astronomy & Astrophysics. - 2006: Paper III on spectral coordinates is published. - 2007: HEALPix/HPX projection paper is published. - 2013: XPH butterfly projection paper is published. - 2015: FITS time coordinate paper is published. - 2025: Upstream site notes WCSLIB 8.5 and inclusion of RCS version files documenting changes since v1.0. ### Related projects - Related projects include FITS, CFITSIO, Astropy `astropy.wcs`, WCSTools, Starlink AST, PGPLOT/PGSBOX, HEALPix, NASA HEASARC FITS resources, and the IAU FITS Working Group standards process. ### Sources - - - - - input source_facts.package-manager ## Security Notes No matching local secret-handling manifest was found for wcslib. Nucleus package metadata is still published here so future coverage has a stable package URL. ## Source Database Details - **Source Database:** Homebrew formula API - **Tap:** homebrew/core - **Full Name:** wcslib - **Version Scheme:** 0 - **Revision:** 0 - **Bottle Stable Root URL:** - **Deprecated:** no - **Disabled:** no - **Keg Only:** no - **URL Keys:** stable ## Other Package-Manager Records - Debian apt - libpgsbox8 - 8.4+ds-1: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: libpgsbox8 from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | Draw and label curvilinear coordinate grids with pgplot | https://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/mcalabre/WCS/ - Debian apt - libwcs8 - 8.4+ds-1: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: libwcs8 from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | Implementation of the FITS WCS standard | https://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/mcalabre/WCS/ - Debian apt - wcslib-dev - 8.4+ds-1: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: wcslib-dev from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | Header files and static library for wcslib and pgsbox | https://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/mcalabre/WCS/ - Debian apt - wcslib-doc - 8.4+ds-1: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: wcslib-doc from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | API documentation for wcslib | https://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/mcalabre/WCS/ - Debian apt - wcslib-tools - 8.4+ds-1: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: wcslib-tools from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | Command line tools utilizing wcslib | https://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/mcalabre/WCS/ - Nix - wcslib: normalized package name match | nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/wc/wcslib/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1 - Ubuntu apt - libpgsbox8 - 8.2.2+ds-3build2: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: libpgsbox8 from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | Draw and label curvilinear coordinate grids with pgplot | https://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/mcalabre/WCS/ - Ubuntu apt - libwcs8 - 8.2.2+ds-3build2: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: libwcs8 from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | Implementation of the FITS WCS standard | https://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/mcalabre/WCS/ - Ubuntu apt - wcslib-dev - 8.2.2+ds-3build2: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: wcslib-dev from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | Header files and static library for wcslib and pgsbox | https://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/mcalabre/WCS/ - Ubuntu apt - wcslib-doc - 8.2.2+ds-3build2: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: wcslib-doc from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | API documentation for wcslib | https://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/mcalabre/WCS/ - Ubuntu apt - wcslib-tools - 8.2.2+ds-3build2: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: wcslib-tools from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | Command line tools utilizing wcslib | https://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/mcalabre/WCS/ - apk - wcslib - 8.4-r2: normalized package name match | Alpine Linux edge package indexes: wcslib from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz | implementation of the FITS WCS standard | https://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/mcalabre/WCS/wcslib/ - apk - wcslib-dev - 8.4-r2: normalized package name match | Alpine Linux edge package indexes: wcslib-dev from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz | implementation of the FITS WCS standard (development files) | https://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/mcalabre/WCS/wcslib/ - apk - wcslib-doc - 8.4-r2: normalized package name match | Alpine Linux edge package indexes: wcslib-doc from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz | implementation of the FITS WCS standard (documentation) | https://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/mcalabre/WCS/wcslib/ - dnf - wcslib - 8.4-3.fc44: normalized package name match | Fedora Rawhide package metadata: wcslib from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/e5ca8ce900cd68f5419e1c39ae517343100b306336cbaeb70a3c153121d95094-primary.xml.zst | An implementation of the FITS World Coordinate System standard | https://www.atnf.csiro.au/computing/software/wcs/index.html - dnf - wcslib-devel - 8.4-3.fc44: normalized package name match | Fedora Rawhide package metadata: wcslib-devel from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/e5ca8ce900cd68f5419e1c39ae517343100b306336cbaeb70a3c153121d95094-primary.xml.zst | Libraries, includes, etc. used to develop an application with wcslib | https://www.atnf.csiro.au/computing/software/wcs/index.html ## Related links - [Terminal utility packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/terminal-utilities/) - Matched terminal and command-line workflow metadata. - [Networking and protocol packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/networking-protocol-tools/) - Matched network, protocol, or remote-service metadata. - [Scientific computing packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/scientific-computing-tools/) - Matched scientific computing metadata. - [Homebrew utility packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew-utility-packages/) - Matched Homebrew package provider. - [cfitsio](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/cfitsio/) - Runtime dependency declared by Homebrew. - [astrometry-net](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/astrometry-net/) - Popular package that depends on this formula. - [gnuastro](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/gnuastro/) - Popular package that depends on this formula. - [siril](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/siril/) - Popular package that depends on this formula. - [wcstools](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/wcstools/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: astronomy, cli, fits, science, wcs. - [ccfits](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/ccfits/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: astronomy, cli, fits, science. - [montage](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/montage/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: astronomy, cli, fits, science. - [calceph](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/calceph/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: astronomy, cli, science. - [cdsclient](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/cdsclient/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: astronomy, cli, science. - [healpix](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/healpix/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: astronomy, cli, science. ## Combined YAML source View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/wcslib.yml](https://github.com/automic-vault/db/blob/main/combined/wcslib.yml) ## Sources - Nucleus package database - Geiger risk classifier - package-page enrichment - curated package history - package version freshness - av.db category and tag curation - package relationship graph - external package-manager database matches - cross-ecosystem install command graph