Homebrew is a package manager for MacOS, very much like apt is a package manager for Ubuntu/Debian Linux.
It lets you install, update, upgrade and uninstall programs via the command line. It also let’s you install some Linux programs for your Mac, like wget for example.
Homebrew also let’s you add programs to launchd so that they automatically start and restart with login. For example brew services start mongodb
install Homebrew with this command:
1/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
brew install foo | Install package |
brew upgrade foo | Upgrade package |
brew unlink foo | Unlink (removes symlinks, e.g. before upgrades) |
brew link foo | Link |
brew switch foo 2.5.0 | Change versions |
brew list --versions foo | See what versions you have |
brew info foo | Get info about package, List versions, caveats, etc |
brew cleanup foo | Remove old versions |
brew edit foo | Edit this formula |
brew home foo | Open homepage |
brew update | Update brew and cask |
brew list | List installed |
brew outdated | What’s due for upgrades? |
brew --cellar | Shows the path for Cellar directory |
Upgrade a package:
brew unlink foo and then brew upgrade foo