brew
The missing package manager for macOS
TLDR
Install the latest stable version of a formula or cask (use --devel for development versions)
List all installed formulae and casks
Upgrade an installed formula or cask (if none is given, all installed formulae/casks are upgraded)
Fetch the newest version of Homebrew and of all formulae and casks from the Homebrew source repository
Show formulae and casks that have a more recent version available
Search for available formulae (i.e. packages) and casks (i.e. native macOS .app packages)
Display information about a formula or a cask (version, installation path, dependencies, etc.)
Check the local Homebrew installation for potential problems
SYNOPSIS
brew --version brew command [--verbose|-v] [options] [formula] ...
GLOBAL OPTIONS
These options are applicable across all sub-commands. -q, --quiet Suppress any warnings. -v, --verbose Make some output more verbose. -d, --debug Display any debugging information. -f, --force Override warnings and enable potentially unsafe operations.
OFFICIAL EXTERNAL COMMANDS
bundle subcommand: Bundler for non-Ruby dependencies from Homebrew, Homebrew Cask and the Mac App Store. See brew bundle --help. Homebrew/homebrew-bundle https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-bundle cask subcommand: Install macOS applications distributed as binaries. See brew-cask(1). Homebrew/homebrew-cask https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask services subcommand: Manage background services with macOS´ launchctl(1) daemon manager. See brew services --help. Homebrew/homebrew-services https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-services
DESCRIPTION
Homebrew is the easiest and most flexible way to install the UNIX tools Apple didn´t include with macOS.
ESSENTIAL COMMANDS
For the full command list, see the COMMANDS section. With --verbose or --debug, many commands print extra debugging informa‐ tion. Note that these options should only appear after a command. install formula: Install formula. formula is usually the name of the formula to install, but it has other syntaxes which are listed in the SPECIFYING FORMULAE section. uninstall formula: Uninstall formula. list: List all installed formulae. search (text|/text/): Perform a substring search of cask tokens and formula names for text. If text is flanked by slashes, it is interpreted as a regular expres‐ sion. The search for text is extended online to homebrew/core and home‐ brew/cask. If no search term is provided, all locally available formu‐ lae are listed.
COMMANDS
analytics [subcommand] If on or off is passed, turn Homebrew´s analytics on or off respec‐ tively. If state is passed, display the current anonymous user behaviour ana‐ lytics state. Read more at https://docs.brew.sh/Analytics. If regenerate-uuid is passed, regenerate the UUID used in Homebrew´s analytics. cat formula Display the source of formula. cleanup [options] [formula|cask] Remove stale lock files and outdated downloads for all formulae and casks, and remove old versions of installed formulae. If arguments are specified, only do this for the given formulae and casks. --prune Remove all cache files older than specified days. -n, --dry-run Show what would be removed, but do not actually remove anything. -s Scrub the cache, including downloads for even the latest ver‐ sions. Note downloads for any installed formula or cask will still not be deleted. If you want to delete those too: rm -rf "$(brew --cache)" --prune-prefix Only prune the symlinks and directories from the prefix and re‐ move no other files. command cmd Display the path to the file being used when invoking brew cmd. commands [options] Show lists of built-in and external commands. --include-aliases Include aliases of internal commands. config Show Homebrew and system configuration info useful for debugging. If you file a bug report, you will be required to provide this informa‐ tion. deps [options] [formula] Show dependencies for formula. Additional options specific to formula may be appended to the command. When given multiple formula arguments, show the intersection of dependencies for each formula. -n Sort dependencies in topological order. --1 Only show dependencies one level down, instead of recursing. --union Show the union of dependencies for multiple formula, instead of the intersection. --full-name List dependencies by their full name. --include-build Include :build dependencies for formula. --include-optional Include :optional dependencies for formula. --include-test Include :test dependencies for formula (non-recursive). --skip-recommended Skip :recommended dependencies for formula. --include-requirements Include requirements in addition to dependencies for formula. --tree Show dependencies as a tree. When given multiple formula argu‐ ments, show individual trees for each formula. --annotate Mark any build, test, optional, or recommended dependencies as such in the output. --installed List dependencies for formulae that are currently installed. If formula is specified, list only its dependencies that are cur‐ rently installed. --all List dependencies for all available formulae. --for-each Switch into the mode used by the --all option, but only list de‐ pendencies for each provided formula, one formula per line. This is used for debugging the --installed/--all display mode. desc [options] (text|/text/|formula) Display formula´s name and one-line description. Formula descriptions are cached; the cache is created on the first search, making that search slower than subsequent ones. -s, --search Search both names and descriptions for text. If text is flanked by slashes, it is interpreted as a regular expression. -n, --name Search just names for text. If text is flanked by slashes, it is interpreted as a regular expression. -d, --description Search just descriptions for text. If text is flanked by slashes, it is interpreted as a regular expression. diy [options] Automatically determine the installation prefix for non-Homebrew soft‐ ware. Using the output from this command, you can install your own software into the Cellar and then link it into Homebrew´s prefix with brew link. --name Explicitly set the name of the package being installed. --version Explicitly set the version of the package being installed. doctor [options] Check your system for potential problems. Will exit with a non-zero status if any potential problems are found. Please note that these warnings are just used to help the Homebrew maintainers with debugging if you file an issue. If everything you use Homebrew for is working fine: please don´t worry or file an issue; just ignore this. --list-checks List all audit methods. -D, --audit-debug Enable debugging and profiling of audit methods. fetch [options] formula Download a bottle (if available) or source packages for formula. For tarballs, also print SHA-256 checksums. --HEAD Fetch HEAD version instead of stable version. --devel Fetch development version instead of stable version. --retry Retry if downloading fails or re-download if the checksum of a previously cached version no longer matches. --deps Also download dependencies for any listed formula. -s, --build-from-source Download source packages rather than a bottle. --build-bottle Download source packages (for eventual bottling) rather than a bottle. --force-bottle Download a bottle if it exists for the current or newest version of macOS, even if it would not be used during installation. gist-logs [options] formula Upload logs for a failed build of formula to a new Gist. Presents an error message if no logs are found. --with-hostname Include the hostname in the Gist. -n, --new-issue Automatically create a new issue in the appropriate GitHub repository after creating the Gist. -p, --private The Gist will be marked private and will not appear in listings but will be accessible with its link. home [formula] Open formula´s homepage in a browser, or open Homebrew´s own homepage if no formula is provided. info [options] [formula] Display brief statistics for your Homebrew installation. If formula is provided, show summary of information about formula. --analytics List global Homebrew analytics data or, if specified, installa‐ tion and build error data for formula (provided neither HOME‐ BREW_NO_ANALYTICS nor HOMEBREW_NO_GITHUB_API are set). --days How many days of global analytics data to retrieve. The value for days must be 30, 90 or 365. The default is 30. --category Which type of global analytics data to retrieve. The value for category must be install, install-on-request, cask-install, build-error or os-version. The default is install. --github Open the GitHub source page for formula in a browser. To view formula history locally: brew log -p formula --json Print a JSON representation of formula. Currently the default and only accepted value for version is v1. See the docs for ex‐ amples of using the JSON output: https://docs.brew.sh/Query‐ ing-Brew --installed Print JSON of formulae that are currently installed. --all Print JSON of all available formulae. install [options] formula Install formula. Additional options specific to formula may be appended to the command. Unless HOMEBREW_NO_INSTALL_CLEANUP is set, brew cleanup will then be run for the installed formulae or, every 30 days, for all formulae. --env If std is passed, use the standard build environment instead of superenv. If super is passed, use superenv even if the formula specifies the standard build environment. --ignore-dependencies An unsupported Homebrew development flag to skip installing any dependencies of any kind. If the dependencies are not already present, the formula will have issues. If you´re not developing Homebrew, consider adjusting your PATH rather than using this flag. --only-dependencies Install the dependencies with specified options but do not in‐ stall the formula itself. --cc Attempt to compile using the specified compiler, which should be the name of the compiler´s executable, e.g. gcc-7 for GCC 7. In order to use LLVM´s clang, specify llvm_clang. To use the Ap‐ ple-provided clang, specify clang. This option will only accept compilers that are provided by Homebrew or bundled with macOS. Please do not file issues if you encounter errors while using this option. -s, --build-from-source Compile formula from source even if a bottle is provided. Depen‐ dencies will still be installed from bottles if they are avail‐ able. --force-bottle Install from a bottle if it exists for the current or newest version of macOS, even if it would not normally be used for in‐ stallation. --include-test Install testing dependencies required to run brew test formula. --devel If formula defines it, install the development version. --HEAD If formula defines it, install the HEAD version, aka. master, trunk, unstable. --fetch-HEAD Fetch the upstream repository to detect if the HEAD installation of the formula is outdated. Otherwise, the repository´s HEAD will only be checked for updates when a new stable or develop‐ ment version has been released. --keep-tmp Retain the temporary files created during installation. --build-bottle Prepare the formula for eventual bottling during installation, skipping any post-install steps. --bottle-arch Optimise bottles for the specified architecture rather than the oldest architecture supported by the version of macOS the bot‐ tles are built on. --display-times Print install times for each formula at the end of the run. -i, --interactive Download and patch formula, then open a shell. This allows the user to run ./configure --help and otherwise determine how to turn the software package into a Homebrew package. -g, --git Create a Git repository, useful for creating patches to the software. leaves List installed formulae that are not dependencies of another installed formula. link, ln [options] formula Symlink all of formula´s installed files into Homebrew´s prefix. This is done automatically when you install formulae but can be useful for DIY installations. --overwrite Delete files that already exist in the prefix while linking. -n, --dry-run List files which would be linked or deleted by brew link --over‐ write without actually linking or deleting any files. list, ls [options] [formula] List all installed formulae. If formula is provided, summarize the paths within its current keg. --full-name Print formulae with fully-qualified names. If --full-name is not passed, other options (i.e. -1, -l, -r and -t) are passed to ls(1) which produces the actual output. --unbrewed List files in Homebrew´s prefix not installed by Homebrew. --versions Show the version number for installed formulae, or only the specified formulae if formula are provided. --multiple Only show formulae with multiple versions installed. --pinned Show the versions of pinned formulae, or only the specified (pinned) formulae if formula are provided. See also pin, unpin. -1 Force output to be one entry per line. This is the default when output is not to a terminal. -l List in long format. If the output is to a terminal, a total sum for all the file sizes is printed before the long listing. -r Reverse the order of the sort to list the oldest entries first. -t Sort by time modified, listing most recently modified first. log [options] [formula] Show the git log for formula, or show the log for the Homebrew reposi‐ tory if no formula is provided. -p, --patch Also print patch from commit. --stat Also print diffstat from commit. --oneline Print only one line per commit. -1, --max-count Print only one or a specified number of commits. migrate [options] formula Migrate renamed packages to new names, where formula are old names of packages. missing [options] [formula] Check the given formula kegs for missing dependencies. If no formula are provided, check all kegs. Will exit with a non-zero status if any kegs are found to be missing dependencies. --hide Act as if none of the specified hidden are installed. hidden should be a comma-separated list of formulae. options [options] [formula] Show install options specific to formula. --compact Show all options on a single line separated by spaces. --installed Show options for formulae that are currently installed. --all Show options for all available formulae. outdated [options] List installed formulae that have an updated version available. By de‐ fault, version information is displayed in interactive shells, and sup‐ pressed otherwise. --json Print output in JSON format. Currently the default and only ac‐ cepted value for version is v1. See the docs for examples of us‐ ing the JSON output: https://docs.brew.sh/Querying-Brew --fetch-HEAD Fetch the upstream repository to detect if the HEAD installation of the formula is outdated. Otherwise, the repository´s HEAD will only be checked for updates when a new stable or develop‐ ment version has been released. pin formula Pin the specified formula, preventing them from being upgraded when is‐ suing the brew upgrade formula command. See also unpin. postinstall formula Rerun the post-install steps for formula. readall [options] [tap] Import all formulae from the specified tap, or from all installed taps if none is provided. This can be useful for debugging issues across all formulae when making significant changes to formula.rb, testing the performance of loading all formulae or to determine if any current for‐ mulae have Ruby issues. --aliases Verify any alias symlinks in each tap. --syntax Syntax-check all of Homebrew´s Ruby files. reinstall [options] formula Uninstall and then install formula using the same options it was origi‐ nally installed with, plus any appended brew formula options. Unless HOMEBREW_NO_INSTALL_CLEANUP is set, brew cleanup will then be run for the reinstalled formulae or, every 30 days, for all formulae. -s, --build-from-source Compile formula from source even if a bottle is available. --force-bottle Install from a bottle if it exists for the current or newest version of macOS, even if it would not normally be used for in‐ stallation. --keep-tmp Retain the temporary files created during installation. --display-times Print install times for each formula at the end of the run. search [options] [text|/text/] Perform a substring search of cask tokens and formula names for text. If text is flanked by slashes, it is interpreted as a regular expres‐ sion. The search for text is extended online to homebrew/core and home‐ brew/cask. If no text is provided, list all locally available formulae (including tapped ones). No online search is performed. --casks List all locally available casks (including tapped ones). No on‐ line search is performed. --desc Search for formulae with a description matching text and casks with a name matching text. --macports Search for text in the given package manager´s list. --fink Search for text in the given package manager´s list. --opensuse Search for text in the given package manager´s list. --fedora Search for text in the given package manager´s list. --debian Search for text in the given package manager´s list. --ubuntu Search for text in the given package manager´s list. sh [options] Start a Homebrew build environment shell. Uses our years-battle-hard‐ ened Homebrew build logic to help your ./configure && make && make in‐ stall or even your gem install succeed. Especially handy if you run Homebrew in an Xcode-only configuration since it adds tools like make to your PATH which build systems would not find otherwise. --env Use the standard PATH instead of superenv´s when std is passed. shellenv Print export statements. When run in a shell, this installation of Homebrew will be added to your PATH, MANPATH, and INFOPATH. The variables HOMEBREW_PREFIX, HOMEBREW_CELLAR and HOMEBREW_REPOSITORY are also exported to avoid querying them multiple times. Consider adding evaluation of this command´s output to your dotfiles (e.g. ~/.profile or ~/.zprofile) with: eval $(brew shellenv) style [options] [file|tap|formula] Check formulae or files for conformance to Homebrew style guidelines. Lists of file, tap and formula may not be combined. If none are pro‐ vided, style will run style checks on the whole Homebrew library, in‐ cluding core code and all formulae. --fix Fix style violations automatically using RuboCop´s auto-correct feature. --display-cop-names Include the RuboCop cop name for each violation in the output. --only-cops Specify a comma-separated cops list to check for violations of only the listed RuboCop cops. --except-cops Specify a comma-separated cops list to skip checking for viola‐ tions of the listed RuboCop cops. switch formula version Symlink all of the specified version of formula´s installation into Homebrew´s prefix. tap [options] user/repo [URL] Tap a formula repository. If no arguments are provided, list all installed taps. With URL unspecified, tap a formula repository from GitHub using HTTPS. Since so many taps are hosted on GitHub, this command is a shortcut for brew tap user/repo https://github.com/user/homebrew-repo. With URL specified, tap a formula repository from anywhere, using any transport protocol that git(1) handles. The one-argument form of tap simplifies but also limits. This two-argument command makes no assump‐ tions, so taps can be cloned from places other than GitHub and using protocols other than HTTPS, e.g. SSH, GIT, HTTP, FTP(S), RSYNC. --full Use a full clone when tapping a repository. By default, the repository is cloned as a shallow copy (--depth=1). To convert a shallow copy to a full copy, you can retap by passing --full without first untapping. --force-auto-update Auto-update tap even if it is not hosted on GitHub. By default, only taps hosted on GitHub are auto-updated (for performance reasons). --repair Migrate tapped formulae from symlink-based to directory-based structure. --list-pinned List all pinned taps. -q, --quieter Suppress any warnings. tap-info [options] [tap] Show detailed information about one or more taps. If no tap names are provided, display brief statistics for all in‐ stalled taps. --installed Show information on each installed tap. --json Print a JSON representation of tap. Currently the default and only accepted value for version is v1. See the docs for examples of using the JSON output: https://docs.brew.sh/Querying-Brew uninstall, rm, remove [options] formula Uninstall formula. --ignore-dependencies Don´t fail uninstall, even if formula is a dependency of any in‐ stalled formulae. unlink [options] formula Remove symlinks for formula from Homebrew´s prefix. This can be useful for temporarily disabling a formula: brew unlink formula && commands && brew link formula -n, --dry-run List files which would be unlinked without actually unlinking or deleting any files. unpack [options] formula Unpack the source files for formula into subdirectories of the current working directory. --destdir Create subdirectories in the directory named by path instead. --patch Patches for formula will be applied to the unpacked source. -g, --git Initialise a Git repository in the unpacked source. This is use‐ ful for creating patches for the software. unpin formula Unpin formula, allowing them to be upgraded by brew upgrade formula. See also pin. untap tap Remove a tapped formula repository. update, up [options] Fetch the newest version of Homebrew and all formulae from GitHub using git(1) and perform any necessary migrations. --merge Use git merge to apply updates (rather than git rebase). update-reset [repository] Fetch and reset Homebrew and all tap repositories (or any specified repository) using git(1) to their latest origin/master. Note: this will destroy all your uncommitted or committed changes. upgrade [options] [formula] Upgrade outdated, unpinned formulae using the same options they were originally installed with, plus any appended brew formula options. If formula are specified, upgrade only the given formula kegs (unless they are pinned; see pin, unpin). Unless HOMEBREW_NO_INSTALL_CLEANUP is set, brew cleanup will then be run for the upgraded formulae or, every 30 days, for all formulae. -s, --build-from-source Compile formula from source even if a bottle is available. --force-bottle Install from a bottle if it exists for the current or newest version of macOS, even if it would not normally be used for in‐ stallation. --fetch-HEAD Fetch the upstream repository to detect if the HEAD installation of the formula is outdated. Otherwise, the repository´s HEAD will only be checked for updates when a new stable or develop‐ ment version has been released. --ignore-pinned Set a successful exit status even if pinned formulae are not up‐ graded. --keep-tmp Retain the temporary files created during installation. --display-times Print install times for each formula at the end of the run. --dry-run Show what would be upgraded, but do not actually upgrade any‐ thing. uses [options] formula Show formulae that specify formula as a dependency. When given multiple formula arguments, show the intersection of formulae that use formula. By default, uses shows all formulae that specify formula as a required or recommended dependency for their stable builds. --recursive Resolve more than one level of dependencies. --installed Only list formulae that are currently installed. --include-build Include all formulae that specify formula as :build type depen‐ dency. --include-test Include all formulae that specify formula as :test type depen‐ dency. --include-optional Include all formulae that specify formula as :optional type de‐ pendency. --skip-recommended Skip all formulae that specify formula as :recommended type de‐ pendency. --devel Show usage of formula by development builds. --HEAD Show usage of formula by HEAD builds. --cache [options] [formula] Display Homebrew´s download cache. See also HOMEBREW_CACHE. If formula is provided, display the file or directory used to cache formula. -s, --build-from-source Show the cache file used when building from source. --force-bottle Show the cache file used when pouring a bottle. --cellar [formula] Display Homebrew´s Cellar path. Default: $(brew --prefix)/Cellar, or if that directory doesn´t exist, $(brew --repository)/Cellar. If formula is provided, display the location in the cellar where for‐ mula would be installed, without any sort of versioned directory as the last path. --env [options] Summarize Homebrew´s build environment as a plain list. If the command´s output is sent through a pipe and no shell is speci‐ fied, the list is formatted for export to bash(1) unless --plain is passed. --shell Generate a list of environment variables for the specified shell, or --shell=auto to detect the current shell. --plain Generate plain output even when piped. --prefix [formula] Display Homebrew´s install path. Default: /usr/local on macOS and /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew on Linux. If formula is provided, display the location in the cellar where for‐ mula is or would be installed. --repository, --repo [user/repo] Display where Homebrew´s .git directory is located. If user/repo are provided, display where tap user/repo´s directory is located. --version Print the version numbers of Homebrew, Homebrew/homebrew-core and Home‐ brew/homebrew-cask (if tapped) to standard output.
DEVELOPER COMMANDS
audit [options] [formula] Check formula for Homebrew coding style violations. This should be run before submitting a new formula. If no formula are provided, check all locally available formulae. Will exit with a non-zero status if any er‐ rors are found, which can be useful for implementing pre-commit hooks. --strict Run additional style checks, including RuboCop style checks. --online Run additional slower style checks that require a network con‐ nection. --new-formula Run various additional style checks to determine if a new for‐ mula is eligible for Homebrew. This should be used when creating new formula and implies --strict and --online. --fix Fix style violations automatically using RuboCop´s auto-correct feature. --display-cop-names Include the RuboCop cop name for each violation in the output. --display-filename Prefix every line of output with the file or formula name being audited, to make output easy to grep. -D, --audit-debug Enable debugging and profiling of audit methods. --only Specify a comma-separated method list to only run the methods named audit_method. --except Specify a comma-separated method list to skip running the meth‐ ods named audit_method. --only-cops Specify a comma-separated cops list to check for violations of only the listed RuboCop cops. --except-cops Specify a comma-separated cops list to skip checking for viola‐ tions of the listed RuboCop cops. bottle [options] formula Generate a bottle (binary package) from a formula that was installed with --build-bottle. If the formula specifies a rebuild version, it will be incremented in the generated DSL. Passing --keep-old will at‐ tempt to keep it at its original value, while --no-rebuild will remove it. --skip-relocation Do not check if the bottle can be marked as relocatable. --or-later Append _or_later to the bottle tag. --force-core-tap Build a bottle even if formula is not in homebrew/core or any installed taps. --no-rebuild If the formula specifies a rebuild version, remove it from the generated DSL. --keep-old If the formula specifies a rebuild version, attempt to preserve its value in the generated DSL. --json Write bottle information to a JSON file, which can be used as the value for --merge. --merge Generate an updated bottle block for a formula and optionally merge it into the formula file. Instead of a formula name, re‐ quires the path to a JSON file generated with brew bottle --json formula. --write Write changes to the formula file. A new commit will be gener‐ ated unless --no-commit is passed. --no-commit When passed with --write, a new commit will not generated after writing changes to the formula file. --root-url Use the specified URL as the root of the bottle´s URL instead of Homebrew´s default. bump-formula-pr [options] [formula] Create a pull request to update formula with a new URL or a new tag. If a URL is specified, the SHA-256 checksum of the new download should also be specified. A best effort to determine the SHA-256 and formula name will be made if either or both values are not supplied by the user. If a tag is specified, the Git commit revision corresponding to that tag must also be specified. Note: this command cannot be used to transition a formula from a URL-and-SHA-256 style specification into a tag-and-revision style spec‐ ification, nor vice versa. It must use whichever style specification the formula already uses. --devel Bump the development rather than stable version. The development spec must already exist. -n, --dry-run Print what would be done rather than doing it. --write When passed along with --dry-run, perform a not-so-dry run by making the expected file modifications but not taking any Git actions. --no-audit Don´t run brew audit before opening the PR. --strict Run brew audit --strict before opening the PR. --no-browse Print the pull request URL instead of opening in a browser. --mirror Use the specified URL as a mirror URL. --version Use the specified version to override the value parsed from the URL or tag. Note that --version=0 can be used to delete an ex‐ isting version override from a formula if it has become redun‐ dant. --message Append message to the default pull request message. --url Specify the URL for the new download. If a URL is specified, the SHA-256 checksum of the new download should also be specified. --sha256 Specify the SHA-256 checksum of the new download. --tag Specify the new git commit tag for the formula. --revision Specify the new git commit revision corresponding to the speci‐ fied tag. bump-revision [options] formula Create a commit to increment the revision of formula. If no revision is present, "revision 1" will be added. -n, --dry-run Print what would be done rather than doing it. --message Append message to the default commit message. create [options] URL Generate a formula for the downloadable file at URL and open it in the editor. Homebrew will attempt to automatically derive the formula name and version, but if it fails, you´ll have to make your own template. The wget formula serves as a simple example. For the complete API, see: http://www.rubydoc.info/github/Homebrew/brew/master/Formula --autotools Create a basic template for an Autotools-style build. --cmake Create a basic template for a CMake-style build. --meson Create a basic template for a Meson-style build. --no-fetch Homebrew will not download URL to the cache and will thus not add its SHA-256 to the formula for you, nor will it check the GitHub API for GitHub projects (to fill out its description and homepage). --HEAD Indicate that URL points to the package´s repository rather than a file. --set-name Explicitly set the name of the new formula. --set-version Explicitly set the version of the new formula. --tap Generate the new formula within the given tap, specified as user/repo. edit [formula] Open formula in the editor set by EDITOR or HOMEBREW_EDITOR, or open the Homebrew repository for editing if no formula is provided. extract [options] formula tap Look through repository history to find the most recent version of for‐ mula and create a copy in tap/Formula/formula@version.rb. If the tap is not installed yet, attempt to install/clone the tap before continuing. To extract a formula from a tap that is not homebrew/core use its fully-qualified form of user/repo/formula. --version Extract the specified version of formula instead of the most re‐ cent. formula formula Display the path where formula is located. irb [options] Enter the interactive Homebrew Ruby shell. --examples Show several examples. --pry Use Pry instead of IRB. Implied if HOMEBREW_PRY is set. linkage [options] [formula] Check the library links from the given formula kegs. If no formula are provided, check all kegs. Raises an error if run on uninstalled formu‐ lae. --test Show only missing libraries and exit with a non-zero status if any missing libraries are found. --reverse For every library that a keg references, print its dylib path followed by the binaries that link to it. --cached Print the cached linkage values stored in HOMEBREW_CACHE, set by a previous brew linkage run. man [options] Generate Homebrew´s manpages. --fail-if-changed Return a failing status code if changes are detected in the man‐ page outputs. This can be used to notify CI when the manpages are out of date. Additionally, the date used in new manpages will match those in the existing manpages (to allow comparison without factoring in the date). --link This is now done automatically by brew update. prof command Run Homebrew with the Ruby profiler, e.g. brew prof readall. pull [options] patch Get a patch from a GitHub commit or pull request and apply it to Home‐ brew. Optionally, publish updated bottles for any formulae changed by the patch. Each patch may be the number of a pull request in homebrew/core, the URL of any pull request or commit on GitHub or a "https://jenk‐ ins.brew.sh/job/..." testing job URL. --bottle Handle bottles, pulling the bottle-update commit and publishing files on Bintray. --bump For one-formula PRs, automatically reword commit message to our preferred format. --clean Do not rewrite or otherwise modify the commits found in the pulled PR. --ignore-whitespace Silently ignore whitespace discrepancies when applying diffs. --resolve When a patch fails to apply, leave in progress and allow user to resolve, instead of aborting. --branch-okay Do not warn if pulling to a branch besides master (useful for testing). --no-pbcopy Do not copy anything to the system clipboard. --no-publish Do not publish bottles to Bintray. --warn-on-publish-failure Do not exit if there´s a failure publishing bottles on Bintray. --bintray-org Publish bottles to the specified Bintray organisation. --test-bot-user Pull the bottle block commit from the specified user on GitHub. release-notes [options] [previous_tag] [end_ref] Print the merged pull requests on Homebrew/brew between two Git refs. If no previous_tag is provided it defaults to the latest tag. If no end_ref is provided it defaults to origin/master. --markdown Print as a Markdown list. ruby (-e text|file) Run a Ruby instance with Homebrew´s libraries loaded, e.g. brew ruby -e "puts :gcc.f.deps" or brew ruby script.rb. -e Execute the given text string as a script. tap-new user/repo Generate the template files for a new tap. test [options] formula Run the test method provided by an installed formula. There is no stan‐ dard output or return code, but generally it should notify the user if something is wrong with the installed formula. Example: brew install jruby && brew test jruby --devel Test the development version of a formula. --HEAD Test the head version of a formula. --keep-tmp Retain the temporary files created for the test. tests [options] Run Homebrew´s unit and integration tests. --coverage Generate code coverage reports. --generic Run only OS-agnostic tests. --no-compat Do not load the compatibility layer when running tests. --online Include tests that use the GitHub API and tests that use any of the taps for official external commands. --only Run only test_script_spec.rb. Appending :line_number will start at a specific line. --seed Randomise tests with the specified value instead of a random seed. update-test [options] Run a test of brew update with a new repository clone. If no options are passed, use origin/master as the start commit. --to-tag Set HOMEBREW_UPDATE_TO_TAG to test updating between tags. --keep-tmp Retain the temporary directory containing the new repository clone. --commit Use the specified commit as the start commit. --before Use the commit at the specified date as the start commit. vendor-gems Install and commit Homebrew´s vendored gems.
CUSTOM EXTERNAL COMMANDS
Homebrew, like git(1), supports external commands. These are executable scripts that reside somewhere in the PATH, named brew-cmdname or brew-cmdname.rb, which can be invoked like brew cmdname. This allows you to create your own commands without modifying Homebrew´s internals. Instructions for creating your own commands can be found in the docs: https://docs.brew.sh/External-Commands
SPECIFYING FORMULAE
Many Homebrew commands accept one or more formula arguments. These ar‐ guments can take several different forms: The name of a formula e.g. git, node, wget. The fully-qualified name of a tapped formula Sometimes a formula from a tapped repository may conflict with one in homebrew/core. You can still access these formulae by us‐ ing a special syntax, e.g. homebrew/dupes/vim or homebrew/ver‐ sions/node4. An arbitrary file or URL Homebrew can install formulae via URL, e.g. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/mas‐ ter/Formula/git.rb, or from a local path. It can point to either a formula file or a bottle. In the case of a URL, the downloaded file will be cached for later use.
ENVIRONMENT
Note that environment variables must have a value set to be detected. For example, run export HOMEBREW_NO_INSECURE_REDIRECT=1 rather than just export HOMEBREW_NO_INSECURE_REDIRECT. HOMEBREW_ARCH Linux only: If set, Homebrew will pass the set value to type name to the compiler´s -march option instead of using the de‐ fault (-march=native). HOMEBREW_ARTIFACT_DOMAIN If set, instructs Homebrew to prefix all download URLs, includ‐ ing those for bottles, with this variable. For example, HOME‐ BREW_ARTIFACT_DOMAIN=http://localhost:8080 will cause a formula with the URL https://example.com/foo.tar.gz to instead download from http://localhost:8080/example.com/foo.tar.gz. HOMEBREW_AUTO_UPDATE_SECS If set, Homebrew will only check for autoupdates once per this seconds interval. Default: 60. HOMEBREW_AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, HOMEBREW_AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY When using the S3 download strategy, Homebrew will look in these variables for access credentials (see https://docs.aws.ama‐ zon.com/cli/latest/userguide/cli-chap-get‐ ting-started.html#cli-environment to retrieve these access cre‐ dentials from AWS). If they are not set, the S3 download strat‐ egy will download with a public (unsigned) URL. HOMEBREW_BOTTLE_DOMAIN By default, Homebrew uses https://homebrew.bintray.com/ as its download mirror for bottles. If set, instructs Homebrew to in‐ stead use the specified URL. For example, HOMEBREW_BOTTLE_DO‐ MAIN=http://localhost:8080 will cause all bottles to download from the prefix http://localhost:8080/. HOMEBREW_BROWSER If set, Homebrew uses this setting as the browser when opening project homepages, instead of the OS default browser. HOMEBREW_CACHE If set, instructs Homebrew to use the specified directory as the download cache. Default: ~/Library/Caches/Homebrew. HOMEBREW_CURLRC If set, Homebrew will not pass -q when invoking curl(1), which disables the use of curlrc. HOMEBREW_CURL_VERBOSE If set, Homebrew will pass --verbose when invoking curl(1). HOMEBREW_CURL_RETRIES If set, Homebrew will pass the given retry count to --retry when invoking curl(1). HOMEBREW_DEBUG If set, any commands that can emit debugging information will do so. HOMEBREW_DEVELOPER If set, Homebrew will tweak behaviour to be more relevant for Homebrew developers (active or budding), e.g. turning warnings into errors. HOMEBREW_DISPLAY If set, Homebrew will use this X11 display when opening a page in a browser, for example with brew home. Primarily useful on Linux. Default: the value of the user´s DISPLAY environment variable. HOMEBREW_DISPLAY_INSTALL_TIMES If set, Homebrew will print install times for each formula at the end of the run. HOMEBREW_EDITOR If set, Homebrew will use this editor when editing a single for‐ mula, or several formulae in the same directory. Note: brew edit will open all of Homebrew as discontinuous files and directories. TextMate can handle this correctly in project mode, but many editors will do strange things in this case. HOMEBREW_FORCE_BREWED_CURL If set, Homebrew will always use a Homebrew-installed curl rather than the system version. Automatically set if the system version of curl is too old. HOMEBREW_FORCE_VENDOR_RUBY If set, Homebrew will always use its vendored, relocatable Ruby version even if the system version of Ruby is new enough. HOMEBREW_FORCE_BREWED_GIT If set, Homebrew will always use a Homebrew-installed git(1) rather than the system version. Automatically set if the system version of git is too old. HOMEBREW_GITHUB_API_TOKEN A personal access token for the GitHub API, used by Homebrew for features such as brew search. You can create one at https://github.com/settings/tokens. If set, GitHub will allow you a greater number of API requests. For more information, see: https://developer.github.com/v3/#rate-limiting Note: Homebrew doesn´t require permissions for any of the scopes. HOMEBREW_INSTALL_BADGE Text printed before the installation summary of each successful build. Default: the beer emoji. HOMEBREW_LOGS If set, Homebrew will use the specified directory to store log files. HOMEBREW_MAKE_JOBS If set, instructs Homebrew to use the value of HOME‐ BREW_MAKE_JOBS as the number of parallel jobs to run when build‐ ing with make(1). Default: the number of available CPU cores. HOMEBREW_NO_ANALYTICS If set, Homebrew will not send analytics. See: https://docs.brew.sh/Analytics HOMEBREW_NO_AUTO_UPDATE If set, Homebrew will not auto-update before running brew in‐ stall, brew upgrade or brew tap. HOMEBREW_NO_BOTTLE_SOURCE_FALLBACK If set, Homebrew will fail on the failure of installation from a bottle rather than falling back to building from source. HOMEBREW_NO_COLOR If set, Homebrew will not print text with colour added. HOMEBREW_NO_EMOJI If set, Homebrew will not print the HOMEBREW_INSTALL_BADGE on a successful build. Note: Homebrew will only try to print emoji on OS X Lion or newer. HOMEBREW_NO_INSECURE_REDIRECT If set, Homebrew will not permit redirects from secure HTTPS to insecure HTTP. While ensuring your downloads are fully secure, this is likely to cause from-source SourceForge, some GNU & GNOME based formu‐ lae to fail to download. HOMEBREW_NO_GITHUB_API If set, Homebrew will not use the GitHub API, e.g. for searches or fetching relevant issues on a failed install. HOMEBREW_NO_INSTALL_CLEANUP If set, brew install, brew upgrade and brew reinstall will never automatically cleanup the installed/upgraded/reinstalled formu‐ lae or all formulae every 30 days. HOMEBREW_PRY If set, Homebrew will use Pry for the brew irb command. HOMEBREW_SVN When exporting from Subversion, Homebrew will use HOMEBREW_SVN if set, a Homebrew-built Subversion if installed, or the sys‐ tem-provided binary. Set this to force Homebrew to use a particular svn binary. HOMEBREW_TEMP If set, instructs Homebrew to use HOMEBREW_TEMP as the temporary directory for building packages. This may be needed if your sys‐ tem temp directory and Homebrew prefix are on different volumes, as macOS has trouble moving symlinks across volumes when the target does not yet exist. This issue typically occurs when using FileVault or custom SSD configurations. HOMEBREW_UPDATE_TO_TAG If set, instructs Homebrew to always use the latest stable tag (even if developer commands have been run). HOMEBREW_VERBOSE If set, Homebrew always assumes --verbose when running commands. http_proxy Sets the HTTP proxy to be used by curl, git and svn when down‐ loading through Homebrew. https_proxy Sets the HTTPS proxy to be used by curl, git and svn when down‐ loading through Homebrew. all_proxy Sets the SOCKS5 proxy to be used by curl, git and svn when down‐ loading through Homebrew. ftp_proxy Sets the FTP proxy to be used by curl, git and svn when down‐ loading through Homebrew. no_proxy Sets the comma-separated list of hostnames and domain names that should be excluded from proxying by curl, git and svn when down‐ loading through Homebrew.
USING HOMEBREW BEHIND A PROXY
Set the http_proxy, https_proxy, all_proxy, ftp_proxy and/or no_proxy environment variables documented above. For example, to use an unauthenticated HTTP or SOCKS5 proxy: export http_proxy=http://$HOST:$PORT export all_proxy=socks5://$HOST:$PORT And for an authenticated HTTP proxy: export http_proxy=http://$USER:$PASSWORD@$HOST:$PORT
AUTHORS
Homebrew´s Project Leader is Mike McQuaid. Homebrew´s Project Leadership Committee is Misty De Meo, Shaun Jackman, Jonathan Chang, Mike McQuaid and Markus Reiter. Homebrew´s Technical Steering Committee is Michka Popoff, FX Coudert, Markus Reiter, Misty De Meo and Mike McQuaid. Homebrew/brew´s Linux maintainers are Michka Popoff, Shaun Jackman and Issy Long. Homebrew´s other current maintainers are Claudia Pellegrino, Chongyu Zhu, Vitor Galvao, Gautham Goli, Steven Peters, William Woodruff, Igor Kapkov, Izaak Beekman, Sean Molenaar, Jan Viljanen, Jason Tedor, Eric Knibbe, Viktor Szakats, Thierry Moisan, Steven Peters, Tom Schoonjans and Issy Long. Former maintainers with significant contributions include JCount, com‐ mitay, Dominyk Tiller, Tim Smith, Baptiste Fontaine, Xu Cheng, Martin Afanasjew, Brett Koonce, Charlie Sharpsteen, Jack Nagel, Adam Vanden‐ berg, Andrew Janke, Alex Dunn, neutric, Tomasz Pajor, Uladzislau Sh‐ ablinski, Alyssa Ross, ilovezfs and Homebrew´s creator: Max Howell.
BUGS
See our issues on GitHub: Homebrew/brew https://github.com/Homebrew/brew/issues Homebrew/homebrew-core https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/issues