Brew Operations

Internal

• brew
• brew Concepts

Commands

update

Fetches the latest version of Homebrew and all formulae and upgrades.

doctor

Checks the Homebrew installation for potential problems and exit with a non-zero status if potential problems are found.

cleanup

Remove old version from cellar for all installed (or specified) formulae. Old downloads from the Homebrew download-cache are deleted.

list

Lists all installed formulae.

With a specific argument, list details about the installed artifacts associated with a specific formula.

brew list

brew list <formula>

Example:

brew list bash
/usr/local/Cellar/bash/4.4.19/bin/bash
/usr/local/Cellar/bash/4.4.19/bin/bashbug
/usr/local/Cellar/bash/4.4.19/include/bash/ (58 files)
/usr/local/Cellar/bash/4.4.19/lib/bash/ (26 files)
/usr/local/Cellar/bash/4.4.19/lib/pkgconfig/bash.pc
/usr/local/Cellar/bash/4.4.19/share/doc/ (10 files)
/usr/local/Cellar/bash/4.4.19/share/info/bash.info
/usr/local/Cellar/bash/4.4.19/share/locale/ (37 files)
/usr/local/Cellar/bash/4.4.19/share/man/ (2 files)

list versions

brew list --versions git-lfs

If no such formula is installed, the command exits with 1.

info

brew info bash

formula

Displays the path where the specified formula is located.

brew formula <formula-name>

tap

Without any arguments, display all taps available on the system:

brew tap

Add a New Tap

brew tap [--full] <user>/<repo> [URL]

Install Homebrew Cask

brew tap caskroom/cask

For more about Homebrew Cask see:

Homebrew Cask

cask

cask list

brew cask list

With no args, lists installed casks.

brew cask audit

cask install

Install the Latest Version

Install the latest version of a cask:

brew cask install vagrant

Install a Specific Cask Version

It seems it's a big deal to revert to a specific version with Vagrant, it requires low level intervention: https://www.jverdeyen.be/mac/downgrade-brew-cask-application/.

This is a step-by-step example for Vagrant.

Clone the Homebrew homebrew-cask repository:

git clone git@github.com:Homebrew/homebrew-cask.git

Pull the history of the specific cask you want to downgrade (in this case vagrant.rb):

git log master -- Casks/vagrant.rb

Based on the commit comment, pick the commit corresponding to the desired version:

commit ae2a540ffee555491ccbb2cefa4296c76355ef9f
Author: Nikolas Evers <vintagesucks@users.noreply.github.com>
Date:   Tue Oct 15 12:22:12 2019 +0200

    Update vagrant from 2.2.5 to 2.2.6 (#70854)

Uninstall the current version:

brew cask uninstall vagrant

Using the commit identified above, install the desired version:

brew cask install https://raw.githubusercontent.com/caskroom/homebrew-cask/ae2a540ffee555491ccbb2cefa4296c76355ef9f/Casks/vagrant.rb

cask uninstall

Uninstall the specified cask:

brew cask uninstall vagrant