Homebrew

Homebrew

Homebrew is the standard package manager for macOS. v4.2 (2025) is faster (JSON API) and supports declarative Brewfile.

When to Use

• macOS Dev Setup: Installing Node, Python, Git, Docker, Postgres.
• Casks: Installing GUI apps (VS Code, Slack, Chrome).
• Dotfiles: Automating machine setup.

Quick Start

# Install wget
brew install wget

# Install VS Code (Cask)
brew install --cask visual-studio-code

Core Concepts

Formulae

CLI tools compiled from source (or bottles).

Casks

macOS native applications (drag-and-drop apps automation).

Brewfile

Dependency list. brew bundle installs everything listed.

Best Practices (2025)

Do:

• Use Brewfile: Commit a Brewfile to your dotfiles repo. brew bundle dump generates it.
• Cleanup: brew cleanup frees up GBs of old versions.
• Pin versions: If you need stability, use brew pin postgresql@14.

Don't:

• Don't run as sudo: Homebrew manages permissions.

References

• Homebrew Documentation