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Installing Homebrew on macOS Catalina 10.

15, Package Manager for


Linux Apps
The easiest way to install a number of Unix style applications and open source software onto macOS Catalina, Mojave and earlier Sierra
OS versions is via a package manager, unfortunately, macOS Catalina 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
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 prompt you to install to carry on with the Homebrew installation and
download the Command Line Tools.

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One issue that typically comes up is an outdated or missing version of Xcode.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To see what packages are out of date but not to upgrade them

brew outdated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 …

admins-MacBook-Pro:~ admin$ brew config


admin@192-168-1-104 ~ % brew config
HOMEBREW_VERSION: 2.1.15
ORIGIN: https://github.com/Homebrew/brew
HEAD: 2bf8015bc44878d432fb9da4f11e1d8abcef8f32
Last commit: 2 days ago
Core tap ORIGIN: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core
Core tap HEAD: f9cf4eb13c44167695e6c4b5bce5062b77085098
Core tap last commit: 65 minutes ago
HOMEBREW_PREFIX: /usr/local
CPU: quad-core 64-bit skylake
Homebrew Ruby: 2.6.3 => /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/bin/ruby
Clang: 11.0 build 1100
Git: 2.21.0 => /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin/git
Curl: 7.64.1 => /usr/bin/curl
macOS: 10.15.1-x86_64
CLT: 11.0.0.0.1.1567737322
Xcode: 10.2.1 => /Volumes/Macintosh HD/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer
CLT headers: 11.0.0.0.1.1567737322

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.!

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