Homebrew is a package manager for Apple MacOS. It allows the installation and management of packages in the form of "formulae" and applications in the form of "casks". Homebrew is often considered to be a superior method when compared to the default Apple installation methods as their is next to no control on how or what is installed and there is almost no management available. It is Open-Source and based entirely on Git and Ruby so hacking it with personal code is entirely acceptable and commonely done. It is considered particularly useful when using any Apple Macs that employ the use of Apple Silicon such as the M1, M2 and M3 ARM CPUs. This is due to the fact that homebrew will automatically identify the system that it is running on and then search for the best version to install. Management of applications and packages is reltively simple as deleting, updating and listing is all managed by Homebrew and controlled with very simple commands. The general syntax is: brew command [--verbose|-v] [options] [formula]
Installation:
Open MacOS Terminal
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
Restart MacOS Terminal
Searching for Applications and Packages:
brew search Google #lists casks and formulaes
Install Application and Packages:
brew install --cask firefox #--cask for applications
brew install vim
List Applications and Packages:
brew list #casks and formulae are listed seperately
Update Applications and Packages
brew update #gets the latests versions and compares them to installed
brew outdated #lists all with possible updates
brew upgrade #upgrades all out of date
or
brew upgrade firefox #upgrades a specified but will also upgrade and dependancies
Delete Applications and Packages:
brew delete firefox #best to do a list first to find the exact name