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 top
Output:
Yes, I can do it.
Install The Package
You can use brew install FORMULA...
to install the packages, take htop
for example:
brew install htop
Update The Package
If you want to update a existed package, just use brew upgrade [FORMULA...]
.
brew upgrade htop
View Package Info
If you want to check the information of package, you can use brew info [FORMULA...]
.
brew info htop
Check All Of Packages
You can use brew list [FORMULA...]
to check all the package that exist in your environment.
brew list
Output:
As you can see, not much packages in my environment.
Uninstall The Package
You can use uninstall FORMULA...
to uninstall the package.
brew uninstall htop
Update Homebrew
brew update
Delete 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 cleanup
References
- https://brew.sh/
- https://www.infoworld.com/article/3328824/homebrew-tutorial-how-to-use-homebrew-for-macos.html