brew

The Missing Package Manager for macOS

• Official Site

Essential Commands

1. General help: brew --help

2. Search for a package: brew search <package>

3. Get info about a package: brew info <package>

4. Install a package (formula or cask): brew install [--no-quarantine] [--cask] <package>

   • I normally don't use the optional --cask flag, brew is clever enough to know which I want most of the time; and prompts me for which when ambiguous.

   • --no-quarantine ensures you don't get the security confirmation dialog on opening a cask for first time.

   • formula refers to a cli app or lib while cask refers to a full "gui" application

5. Remove a package: brew uninstall <package>

6. Update/Upgrade all packages: brew update && brew upgrade [--greedy]

   • --greedy flag is for those apps that have auto-update enabled. I use it always, instead of upgrading individual app.

7. Cleanup everything: brew autoremove && brew cleanup [--prune=all]

8. List of all formulae explicitly installed (without deps): brew leaves