YKYH Picks
☰ Menu
Home›Command-Line Tools›rlwrap
CLI Open source 218 installs/mo

rlwrap for Mac

Readline wrapper: adds readline support to tools that lack it

Quick answer: rlwrap is a command-line tool for macOS. Install it with brew install rlwrap. It is distributed under the GPL-2.0-or-later licence. It has 218 Homebrew installs in the last 30 days.

What rlwrap is

rlwrap is a command-line tool for macOS: readline wrapper: adds readline support to tools that lack it.

It is distributed as a Homebrew formula, which builds or pours a binary and puts it on your PATH. The project is open source and lives at https://github.com/hanslub42/rlwrap.

How to install rlwrap

  1. Open Terminal (press ⌘ + Space and type “Terminal”).
  2. If Homebrew is not installed yet, run the installer below once.
  3. Run brew install rlwrap.

Homebrew installer, if you need it:

Prefer a graphical installer? Download it from the official site. MacPicks never hosts or mirrors binaries — the Homebrew command always pulls from the vendor's own release.

Similar apps in Command-Line Tools

Closest apps in the same category, ordered by description similarity and install base. These are related tools, not confirmed substitutes; the comparison pages cover hand-picked head-to-head matchups.

borgmaticSimple wrapper script for the Borg backup softwareCLIOpen source209/moaws-crt-cppC++ wrapper around the aws-c-* librariesCLIOpen source232/mointernetarchivePython wrapper for the various Internet Archive APIsCLIOpen source231/moterraform-localCLI wrapper to deploy your Terraform applications directly to LocalStackCLIOpen source158/mometa-package-managerWrapper around all package managers with a unifying CLICLIOpen source323/molibeditBSD-style licensed readline alternativeCLIOpen source326/mo

Frequently asked questions

How do I install rlwrap on Mac?

Run brew install rlwrap in Terminal. This requires Homebrew; if you do not have it, install it first with the command below.

Is rlwrap open source?

Yes — Homebrew distributes it under the GPL-2.0-or-later licence.

Does rlwrap run on Apple silicon?

Homebrew publishes this formula for macOS. If upstream does not ship an Apple silicon build, Rosetta 2 handles the Intel binary.

How popular is rlwrap?

It was installed 218 times in the last 30 days according to Homebrew analytics, ranking #2388 in this catalogue.

What version of rlwrap is current?

The latest packaged version is 0.48.