What is Homebrew?
Homebrew is the most popular package manager for Mac OS X. Homebrew Cask extends Homebrew with support for quickly installing Mac applications like Google Chrome, VLC, and more.
Homebrew is an open-source that makes it easier to install software on macOS (Apple’s operating system) and Linux. Homebrew is a software package manager for Mac OS which can be used to install required packages, libraries etc to setup your local development requirements.
Basically, a package manager’s job is to find and install the right software packages that will allow you to compile and run various apps/software on your specific operating system. A package manager, like Homebrew, does a lot of tedious time-consuming work that you would otherwise have to do manually.
Homebrew is a great package manager. Originally created for macOS, it now runs on Linux too.
Installing homebrew
On macOS, the command to install Homebrew is:
/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"Uses of Homebrew
- Install software packages required for setting up local development environment in your macOS.
- Not only this, you can even use Homebrew to install other softwares like VLC, Google Chrome etc.
- You can install all the UNIX Tools on your macOS using Homebrew.
- Using Homebrew Cask, which is an extensuion of Homebrew, you can even install Binary apps(DMG files)
Installing applications
Use the brew install command to install an application:
brew install <packagename>For example, to install mysql, run:
brew install mysqlThe command has a lot of options available, and you can check them out
Removing a package
It’s very easy to install a new package. It’s also very easy to uninstall it.
Run:
brew uninstall <packagename>Doing so, Homebrew will completely remove the package from the system.
Conclusion
If you are a mac user, start using Homebrew, because its’ easy to use, manages the complete lifecycle of installations(search, download, install, update and remove) and it is free to use.