libassuan
« Back to VersTracker
Description:
Assuan IPC Library
Type: Formula  |  Tracked Since: Dec 28, 2025
Links: Homepage  |  @gnupg  |  formulae.brew.sh
Category: Security
Tags: c-library ipc gnupg security cryptography
Install: brew install libassuan
About:
Libassuan is a lightweight IPC (Inter-Process Communication) library designed primarily for use with the GnuPG system. It provides a synchronous, pipe-based communication protocol that allows different processes to exchange data securely. This library is essential for building applications that need to interact with GnuPG components like gpg-agent or dirmngr.
Key Features:
  • Synchronous IPC protocol using pipes
  • Client-server architecture support
  • Integration with GnuPG ecosystem
  • Lightweight and modular design
  • C library with clean API
Use Cases:
  • Developing applications that communicate with gpg-agent
  • Creating custom GnuPG frontends
  • Implementing secure IPC in privacy-focused software
Alternatives:
  • D-Bus – More complex, system-wide message bus vs Libassuan's lightweight point-to-point IPC
  • Unix sockets – Lower-level primitive requiring manual protocol implementation
Version History
Detected Version Rev Change Commit
Sep 14, 2025 6:47am 0 VERSION_BUMP 7e93cd98