bnd is not a single product, it is a library (bndlib) used in many different software build environments. It runs inside Maven, ant, gradle, Eclipse, sbt, and maybe one day in Intellij. To install bnd, you will have to install these tools.
That said, there is also a command line version of bnd, providing an easy way to try out its many features. You can install bnd through brew on MacOS.
You can also run bnd command as executable jar, which can be downloaded from JFrog:
java -jar biz.aQute.bnd-{VERSION}.jar <command>
The binaries are available on JFrog. The latest version can be found at:
https://bndtools.jfrog.io/bndtools/libs-snapshot
If you are a maven user, you can find many version in central. The coordinates are:
<dependency>
<groupId>biz.aQute.bnd</groupId>
<artifactId>biz.aQute.bndlib</artifactId>
<version>....</version>
</dependency>
bnd is maintained at github. If you want to change the code, just clone it and modify it. In general we accept pull requests, and often even highly appreciate them.
The manual is also on github. If you see an improvement, do not hesitate to clone the repo and create a pull request. Improvements are bug corrections but we also like short articles about how to do do something with bnd.
If you’re behind a firewall that requires proxies or you use repositories that require authentication see -connection-settings.