libxml2
brew install libxml2
v2.15.3
MIT
keg-only
C library for parsing and manipulating XML documents with XPath and XSLT support.
Why you might care
libxml2 is a foundational XML processing library used by countless command-line tools, build systems, and language bindings. It's keg-only because macOS provides its own version, but Homebrew's libxml2 lets you use a newer or independently-managed build for development or when older system versions cause compatibility issues. Essential as a build dependency for tools like xmllint, xsltproc, or Python's lxml.
43.1k
30-day installs · #150
163.8k
90-day · #129
590.0k
365-day · #120
Runtime dependencies
Build dependencies
Links
- http://xmlsoft.org/
- Brew formula source: Formula/lib/libxml2.rb
Keg-only reason
:provided_by_macos
Blurb generated by claude-haiku-4-5 on today.
Raw metadata
{
"aliases": [],
"alternatives": [
"expat",
"pugixml",
"rapidxml"
],
"build_dependencies": [
"pkgconf"
],
"categories": [
"library",
"parser",
"xml-tool"
],
"caveats": null,
"conflicts_with": [],
"dependencies": [
"readline"
],
"deprecated": 0,
"deprecation_reason": null,
"desc": "GNOME XML library",
"disable_reason": null,
"disabled": 0,
"enrichment_fetched_at": "2026-06-20T23:40:41+00:00",
"first_seen": "2026-06-20T23:34:18+00:00",
"full_name": "libxml2",
"github_default_branch": null,
"github_last_commit_at": null,
"github_readme_excerpt": null,
"github_repo": null,
"github_stars": null,
"github_topics": [],
"homepage": "http://xmlsoft.org/",
"homepage_og_description": "XML parser and toolkit",
"homepage_og_image": "https://gitlab.gnome.org/assets/twitter_card-570ddb06edf56a2312253c5872489847a0f385112ddbcd71ccfa1570febab5d2.jpg",
"homepage_title": "Home \u00b7 Wiki \u00b7 GNOME / libxml2 \u00b7 GitLab",
"installs_30d": 43067,
"installs_365d": 589999,
"installs_90d": 163827,
"keg_only": 1,
"keg_only_reason": ":provided_by_macos",
"last_seen": "2026-06-20T23:34:18+00:00",
"license": "MIT",
"llm_generated_at": "2026-06-20T23:43:02+00:00",
"llm_model": "claude-haiku-4-5",
"name": "libxml2",
"oldnames": [],
"one_liner": "C library for parsing and manipulating XML documents with XPath and XSLT support.",
"optional_dependencies": [],
"rank_30d": 150,
"rank_365d": 120,
"rank_90d": 129,
"raw_hash": "17912814748893f1",
"recommended_dependencies": [],
"revision": 0,
"ruby_source_path": "Formula/lib/libxml2.rb",
"tap": "homebrew/core",
"test_dependencies": [
"pkgconf"
],
"uses_from_macos": [],
"version_head": "HEAD",
"version_stable": "2.15.3",
"versioned_formulae": [],
"why_use_this": "libxml2 is a foundational XML processing library used by countless command-line tools, build systems, and language bindings. It\u0027s keg-only because macOS provides its own version, but Homebrew\u0027s libxml2 lets you use a newer or independently-managed build for development or when older system versions cause compatibility issues. Essential as a build dependency for tools like xmllint, xsltproc, or Python\u0027s lxml."
}