Revolutionize Your Mac Experience: Ultimate Guide to Installing Homebrew In Just 5 Minutes!

If you’re a Mac user, you’ve probably heard of Homebrew. Homebrew is a package manager that makes it easy to install software and utilities on your Mac. It simplifies installing all the applications that you might require including popular open source software such as Node.JS, Git, and many more!

The process of installing software on macOS has historically been challenging, time-consuming, and frustrating. Often times you have to install components from multiple sources and which could lead to compatibility issues. Homebrew solves these issues by making getting software to work in a macOS environment more effortless.

This article will guide you through the simple process of installing Homebrew onto your Mac in just 5 minutes.

Step 1: Install Xcode

First, we need to make sure your Mac has Xcode installed. Xcode is an Apple-made suite of software development tools for developing Mac, iOS, and watchOS apps. It’s free and can be downloaded from the Apple website.

Once Xcode is finished downloading, it’s time to install its command-line tools. Open your Terminal, which is located in Applications > Utilities or use Spotlight Search (Command + Space) to find it. Enter the following command and follow the instructions:

xcode-select --install

Step 2: Install Homebrew

Once your Xcode command-line tools are installed using the Terminal, install Homebrew by running the following command in Terminal:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

This command will initiate Homebrew installation process and will install the Homebrew package manager onto your Mac.

Step 3: Test Your New Installation

Once the installation is complete, run the following command to check if Homebrew has been installed properly:

brew doctor

If everything is correctly installed, your Terminal will respond with a message that starts with “Your system is ready to brew.”

Step 4: Installing Applications using Homebrew

Now that Homebrew is installed, you can use it to install all the necessary applications for your Mac.

Let’s assume, you want to work with Node.JS, enter the following command:

brew install node

That’s it! Homebrew will now automatically download everything needed to install Node JS on your Mac. You can check the installed dependencies by running the following command:

brew info node

This will provide you with information of the version of Node JS installed, as well as any other dependencies installed as a direct result of installing Node.JS.

Step 5: Updating Homebrew and Applications

To keep your Mac up to date with new updates, run the following commands:

brew upgrade

and

brew update

Conclusion

With Homebrew, you can easily install software, utilities, and even languages that are not included by default within macOS. You can operate Homebrew in conjunction with the Terminal application, making it easy to install new software without worrying about compatibility issues or needing to download things from multiple locations.

So, jump on the bandwagon and revolutionize your Mac experience by installing Homebrew today – you’ll save tonnes of time and frustration in the long run!

If you’ve ever used Terminal on a Mac, you have probably heard about Homebrew. Installing Homebrew on a Mac is quite simple, and it extends the Mac operating system while also giving Terminal wings to fly.

How to Install Homebrew

Homebrew relies on some support from Apple’s Xcode. Therefore, you need to install that, too. Follow the steps below to get started:

  • Open Terminal from the Applications folder or Launchpad.
  • Copy and paste the following command into Terminal, then press Return.
  • /usr/bin/ruby -e “$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
  • As part of the install, Homebrew will also install Apple’s Xcode developer software. A pop-up will prompt you to approve this.
  • Press the Return key to continue.
  • Enter your administrator password, then press Return again.
  • The Homebrew installation will begin. It may take a few seconds to install completely.
  • At the end of the text on the Terminal window, you will see the words Installation successful.
  • You will also see information about Homebrew analytics and a link if you want to learn more. You can opt-out of analytics gathering if you want for privacy purposes.
  • Close the Terminal window.

What Is Homebrew?

Homebrew is the most popular Mac package manager. Packages are bundles of source code created by developers. Some of the files may be programs, support code, and other bits and pieces needed for the software to run. Homebrew installs open-source, command-line tools, and applications like Google Chrome and VLC effortlessly with a single command. You don’t have to worry about unzipping files or installing pieces of software in any order. Homebrew does it all for you. 

Open Terminal from the Applications folder or Launchpad.

Copy and paste the following command into Terminal, then press Return.

/usr/bin/ruby -e “$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

As part of the install, Homebrew will also install Apple’s Xcode developer software. A pop-up will prompt you to approve this.

Press the Return key to continue.

Enter your administrator password, then press Return again.

The Homebrew installation will begin. It may take a few seconds to install completely.

At the end of the text on the Terminal window, you will see the words Installation successful.

You will also see information about Homebrew analytics and a link if you want to learn more. You can opt-out of analytics gathering if you want for privacy purposes.

Close the Terminal window.

Most Mac users are familiar with dragging a DMG file to the Applications folder to install the software. Sometimes, these installs fail because you needed to take additional steps beforehand. With Homebrew, all the prerequisites are handled automatically in the correct order. 

How to Use Homebrew

To use Homebrew, open Terminal, enter the command using lower-case letters, then press Return to execute it. Be aware of spaces and hyphens.

Helpful Homebrew Apps

Below are some other useful Homebrew commands to try out. In the Terminal window, enter the bolded text below, then press the Return key.

Try running brew doctor to check to see that everything is installed okay and make sure there aren’t any updates you need to apply. Run brew help to see a list of common commands. 

  • brew install wget: A tool for downloading from the web and FTP through the command line.brew install htop: A beefed-up Activity Monitor for Terminal that monitors process activity, CPU activity, memory usage, load average, and process management.brew install map: A network security scanner great for security administrators and researchers. Using it, you can find hosts and services on local networks, detect operating systems, software versions, clients, servers, and other network assets. brew install links: A command-line web browser that will show you all the text on a particular website. brew install geoip: A tool used to find the geolocation of an IP address. brew install irssi: A favorite IRC chat client. brew install watch: A watchdog app that monitors a specific process (IO, disk usage, and other items). Watch is another great tool for network administrators.

To discover all that you can do with it and review the full documentation, you can visit the official website at brew.sh.

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