Homebrew is, in my opinion, an essential package manager for macOS. It greatly simplifies the process of installing and maintaining many different pieces of software. According to Homebrew’s website it “installs the stuff you need that Apple didn’t”.
To begin with, if you don’t already have them, install the Xcode Command Line Tools. Homebrew relies on Xcode Command Line Tools, which include compilers and other essential tools required for Homebrew to work. To install Xcode Command Line Tools, open Terminal in /Applications/Utilities/ and run the following command:
xcode-select --install
Click install and then agree to the license agreement.
Then to install Homebrew itself, run:
ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
and let it install. After the installation is complete, you can run simply:
brew
to verify that it has been installed correctly.
How do you use Homebrew?
Some commands you can run are:
brew search
This searches for packages available for installation.
brew install
This installs a package.
brew upgrade
This upgrades a package.
brew update
This updates Homebrew itself.
brew uninstall
This uninstalls a package.
brew list
This lists installed packages.