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:
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One issue that typically comes up is an outdated or missing version of Xcode.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To see what packages are out of date but not to upgrade them
brew outdated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
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..
