Last Updated on 2021-09-04 by Clay
If you want to install some packages or open-source tool on MacOS, you can use brew command on Terminal. brew also known as Homebrew, is a well-known package management tool on Mac. We can download, search, and manage packages via this tool.
It’s very convenient.
In below, I will introduce how to use brew command to install a package.
How To Use Homebrew
(Note: The following commands are all executed on the terminal)
Enable Homebrew Commands
First, we need to use the following command to install Homebrew in our computer.
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"Search A Package
We can use brew search [TEXT|/REGEX/] to search a package and confirm the package can installed by Homebrew. (brew search supports regular expressions)
For example, I want to check how can I use Homebrew to install the top command (A command to view system resources):
brew search topOutput:
Yes, I can do it.
Install The Package
You can use brew install FORMULA... to install the packages, take htop for example:
brew install htopUpdate The Package
If you want to update a existed package, just use brew upgrade [FORMULA...].
brew upgrade htopView Package Info
If you want to check the information of package, you can use brew info [FORMULA...].
brew info htopCheck All Of Packages
You can use brew list [FORMULA...] to check all the package that exist in your environment.
brew listOutput:
As you can see, not much packages in my environment.
Uninstall The Package
You can use uninstall FORMULA... to uninstall the package.
brew uninstall htopUpdate Homebrew
brew updateDelete Old Homebrew Package
Sometimes, we no longer use the old version of the package, but the old version of the package still exists in the computer to occupy a place, at this time we can use the following command to clean up:
brew cleanupReferences
- https://brew.sh/
- https://www.infoworld.com/article/3328824/homebrew-tutorial-how-to-use-homebrew-for-macos.html