libidn ☆

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Description:
International domain name library

Type: Formula | Tracked Since: Dec 28, 2025

Links: Homepage | formulae.brew.sh

Category: Networking

Tags: library idn networking internationalization domain-names

Install: brew install libidn

About:
Libidn is a mature, stable C library for internationalized domain names (IDN) that implements the Stringprep, Punycode, and Nameprep specifications. It allows applications to correctly process and display domain names containing non-ASCII characters, ensuring compatibility with internationalized top-level domains. This library is a foundational component for many networking and web-related software projects.

Key Features:

Implements Stringprep, Punycode, and Nameprep profiles
Command-line utilities for testing and conversion
Thread-safe and suitable for integration into server applications
Supports both IDNA2003 and newer specifications

Use Cases:

Enabling web browsers and servers to resolve internationalized domain names
Validating and converting domain names in networking tools and scripts
Integrating IDN support into custom applications and libraries

Alternatives:

libpsl – Focuses on Public Suffix Lists rather than core IDN encoding/decoding, but often used alongside libidn.
ICU (International Components for Unicode) – A much larger, comprehensive library for Unicode support that includes IDN functionality but adds significant overhead.

Version History

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