Installing Homebrew on macOS Big Sur 11.2, Package Manager for Linux Apps
The easiest way to install a number of Unix style applications and open source software onto macOS Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave and earlier Sierra OS versions is via a package manager, unfortunately, macOS Big Sur doesn’t come with one, but fortunately, some good folks care, they come in the form of Homebrew.
The install of Homebrew also works on macOS Catalina, macOS Mojave, (High)Sierra, El Capitan, and Yosemite, so macOS 10.10 – 10.14
Homebrew isn’t the only option, also available is MacPorts and Fink but Homebrew is the newest and most popular of the trio.
Install Homebrew
To download install Homebrew run the install script on the command line as below and let the script do its thing:
/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
If you don’t have Apples Xcode Command Line Tools installed it will alert you to that it will install it and carry on with the Homebrew installation and download the Command Line Tools you will need to enter your admin password at some point.
Then Homebrew is installed.
After this Homebrew is installed and ready to install other apps.
To get started run brew help can give some command example usage.
brew help
To check for any issues with the Homebrew install run:
brew doctor
One issue that typically comes up is an outdated or missing version of Xcode.
For the latest macOS, brew doctor will warn that the Homebrew install won’t be 100% if Xcode is not up to date, so update Xcode from the App Store.
To search for an application:
brew search
To install
brew install packagename
To list all apps installed by Homebrew
brew list
To remove an installed application
brew remove packagename
To update Homebrew itself
brew update
To see what packages are out of date but not to upgrade them
brew outdated
To see what upgrade packages all or singular
brew update brew update packagename
To hold a package at a certain version
brew pin packagename
To release a package from a certain version
brew unpin packagename
To see what else you can do
man brew
Where does Homebrew install stuff …. in the Cellar
/usr/local/Cellar/
Where the brew lives.
You can see your Homebrew configuration by running
brew config
The output should be similar to …
[email protected] ~ % brew config HOMEBREW_VERSION: 3.0.10 ORIGIN: https://github.com/Homebrew/brew HEAD: 0ad2564c5f1ddf6f16f707f2861556b80546713c Last commit: 4 days ago Core tap ORIGIN: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core Core tap HEAD: a495193655164f8bf1f0e4978a340e049449fa60 Core tap last commit: 79 minutes ago Core tap branch: master HOMEBREW_PREFIX: /usr/local HOMEBREW_CASK_OPTS: [] HOMEBREW_MAKE_JOBS: 4 Homebrew Ruby: 2.6.3 => /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/bin/ruby CPU: quad-core 64-bit skylake Clang: 12.0 build 1200 Git: 2.24.3 => /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin/git Curl: 7.64.1 => /usr/bin/curl macOS: 11.2.3-x86_64 CLT: 12.4.0.0.1.1610135815
All installations via Homebrew are filed independently in the filing system in /usr/local/Cellar and linked into /usr/local/bin which is a directory which allows you to run these commands and apps as if part of the regular operating system.
This directory is also out of the SIP bounds so there should be no authentication macOS error dialog boxes.
Remove Home-brew and all packages
To remove the Home-brew installation and all packages it has installed..
ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/uninstall)"
HomeBrew is a great package manager just start installing some apps and explore.!