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Output of `man brew` as of 10 MAR 2012
Raw
manbrew.txt
BREW(1) brew BREW(1)
NAME
brew - The missing package manager for OS X
SYNOPSIS
brew [--verbose|-v] command [options] [formula] ...
brew [--version|-v]
DESCRIPTION
Homebrew is the easiest and most flexible way to install the UNIX tools
Apple didn't include with OS X.
OPTIONS
-v, --verbose command [options] [formula] ...
Prints extra, command-specific debugging information. Note that
brew -v by itself is the same as brew --version.
ESSENTIAL COMMANDS
For the full command list, see the COMMANDS section.
install formula
Install formula.
remove formula
Uninstall formula.
update Fetch the newest version of Homebrew from GitHub using git(1).
list List all installed formulae.
search, -S text|/text/
Perform a substring search of formula names for text. If text is
surrounded with slashes, then it is interpreted as a regular
expression. If no search term is given, all available formula
are displayed.
COMMANDS
audit [formulae]
Check formulae for Homebrew coding style violations. This should
be run before submitting a new formula.
If no formulae are provided, all of them are checked.
audit exits with a non-zero status if any errors are found. This
is useful, for instance, for implementing pre-commit hooks.
cat formula
Display the source to formula.
cleanup [--force] [-ns] [formulae]
For all installed or specific formulae, remove any older ver-
sions from the cellar. By default, does not remove out-of-date
keg-only brews, as other software may link directly to specific
versions. In addition old downloads from the Homebrew down-
load-cache are deleted.
If --force is passed, remove out-of-date keg-only brews as well.
If -n is passed, show what would be removed, but do not actually
remove anything.
If -s is passed, scrubs the cache, removing downloads for even
the latest versions of formula. Note downloads for any installed
formula will still not be deleted. If you want to delete those
too: rm -rf $(brew --cache)
create [--autotools|--cmake] [--no-fetch] URL
Generate a formula for the downloadable file at URL and open it
in EDITOR. Homebrew will attempt to automatically derive the
formula name and version, but if it fails, you'll have to make
your own template. The wget formula serves as a simple example.
If --autotools is passed, create a basic template for an Auto-
tools-style build. If --cmake is passed, create a basic template
for a CMake-style build.
If --no-fetch is passed, Homebrew will not download URL to the
cache and will thus not add the MD5 to the formula for you.
deps [--1] [-n] [--tree] [--all] formula
Show formula's dependencies.
If --1 is passed, only show dependencies one level down, instead
of recursing.
If -n is passed, show dependencies in topological order.
If --tree is passed, show dependencies as a tree.
If --all is passed, show dependencies for all formulae.
diy [--set-name] [--set-version]
Automatically determine the installation prefix for non-Homebrew
software.
Using the output from this command, you can install your own
software into the Cellar and then link it into Homebrew's prefix
with brew link.
The options --set-name and --set-version each take an argument
and allow you to explicitly set the name and version of the
package you are installing.
doctor Check your system for potential problems. Doctor exits with a
non-zero status if any problems are found.
edit Open all of Homebrew for editing.
edit formula
Open formula in EDITOR.
fetch [--force] [-v] [--HEAD] [--deps] formulae
Download the source packages for the given formulae. For tar-
balls, also print MD5 and SHA1 checksums.
If --HEAD is passed, download the HEAD versions of formulae
instead. -v may also be passed to make the VCS checkout verbose,
useful for seeing if an existing HEAD cache has been updated.
If --force is passed, remove a previously cached version and
re-fetch.
If --deps is passed, also download dependencies for any listed
formulae.
home Open Homebrew's own homepage in a browser.
home formula
Open formula's homepage in a browser.
info [--all] formula
Display information about formula.
If --all is passed, show info for all formulae.
info --github formula
Open a browser to the GitHub History page for formula formula.
To view formula history locally: brew log -p <formula>.
info URL
Print the name and version that will be detected for URL.
install [--force] [--debug] [--ignore-dependencies] [--fresh]
[--use-clang] [--use-gcc] [--use-llvm] [--build-from-source] [--devel]
[--HEAD] formula
Install formula.
formula is usually the name of the formula to install, but may
also be the URL for an arbitrary formula.
If --force is passed, will install formula even if it is already
installed. This can be used to re-install a formula without
removing it first.
If --debug is passed and brewing fails, open a shell inside the
temporary directory used for compiling.
If --ignore-dependencies is passed, skip installing any depen-
dencies of any kind. If they are not already present, the for-
mula will probably fail to install.
If --fresh is passed, the installation process will not re-use
any options from previous installs.
If --use-clang is passed, attempt to compile using clang.
If --use-gcc is passed, attempt to compile using GCC. This is
useful for systems whose default compiler is LLVM-GCC.
If --use-llvm is passed, attempt to compile using the LLVM
front-end to GCC. NOTE: Not all formulae will build with LLVM.
If --build-from-source is passed, compile from source even if a
bottle is provided for formula.
If --devel is passed, and formula defines it, install the devel-
opment version.
If --HEAD is passed, and formula defines it, install the HEAD
version, aka master, trunk, unstable.
To install a newer version of HEAD use brew rm <foo> && brew
install --HEAD <foo> or brew install --force --HEAD <foo>.
install --interactive [--git] formula
Download and patch formula, then open a shell. This allows the
user to run ./configure --help and otherwise determine how to
turn the software package into a Homebrew formula.
If --git is passed, Homebrew will create a Git repository, use-
ful for creating patches to the software.
ln, link formula
Symlink all of formula's installed files into the Homebrew pre-
fix. This is done automatically when you install formula, but
can be useful for DIY installations.
ls, list [--unbrewed] [--versions] [formulae]
Without any arguments, list all installed formulae.
If formulae are given, list the installed files for formulae.
Combined with --verbose, recursively list the contents of all
subdirectories in each formula's keg.
If --unbrewed is passed, list all files in the Homebrew prefix
not installed by Homebrew.
If --versions is passed, show the version number for installed
formulae, or only the specified formulae if formulae are given.
log [git-log-options] formula ...
Show the git log for the given formulae. Options that git-log(1)
recognizes can be passed before the formula list.
missing [formulae]
Check the given formulae for missing dependencies.
If no formulae are given, check all installed brews.
options [--compact] [--all] [--installed] formula
Display install options specific to formula.
If --compact is passed, show all options on a single line sepa-
rated by spaces.
If --all is passed, show options for all formulae.
If --installed is passed, show options for all installed formu-
lae.
outdated [--quiet]
Show formulae that have an updated version available.
If --quiet is passed, list only the names of outdated brews.
Otherwise, the versions are printed as well.
prune Remove dead symlinks from the Homebrew prefix. This is generally
not needed, but can be useful when doing DIY installations.
rm, remove, uninstall [--force] formula
Uninstall formula.
If --force is passed, and there are multiple versions of formula
installed, delete all installed versions.
search, -S text|/text/
Perform a substring search of formula names for text. If text is
surrounded with slashes, then it is interpreted as a regular
expression. If no search term is given, all available formula
are displayed.
search --macports|--fink text
Search for text on the MacPorts or Fink package search page.
test formula
A few formulae provide a test method. brew test <formula> runs
this test method. There is no standard output or return code,
but it should generally indicate to the user if something is
wrong with the installed formula.
Example: brew install jruby && brew test jruby
unlink formula
Unsymlink formula from the Homebrew prefix. This can be useful
for temporarily disabling a formula: brew unlink foo && commands
&& brew link foo.
update [--rebase]
Fetch the newest version of Homebrew and all formulae from
GitHub using git(1).
If --rebase is specified then git pull --rebase is used.
upgrade [formulae]
Upgrade outdated brews.
If formulae are given, upgrade only the specified brews.
uses [--installed] formula
Show the formulas that specify formula as a dependency. The list
is not recursive; only one level of dependencies is resolved.
If --installed is passed, only list installed formulae.
versions [--compact] formulae
List previous versions of formulae, along with a command to
checkout each version.
If --compact is passed, show all options on a single line sepa-
rated by spaces.
--cache
Display Homebrew's download cache. Default:
~/Library/Caches/Homebrew
--cache formula
Display the file or directory used to cache formula.
--cellar
Display Homebrew's Cellar path. Default: /usr/local/Cellar
--cellar formula
Display the location in the cellar where formula would be
installed, without any sort of versioned directory as the last
path.
--config
Show Homebrew and system configuration useful for debugging. If
you file a bug report, you will likely be asked for this infor-
mation if you do not provide it.
--prefix
Display Homebrew's install path. Default: /usr/local
--prefix formula
Display the location in the cellar where formula is or would be
installed.
--repository
Display where Homebrew's .git directory is located. For standard
installs, the prefix and repository are the same directory.
-v, --version
Print the version number of brew to standard error and exit.
EXTERNAL COMMANDS
Homebrew, like git(1), supports external commands. These are executable
scripts that reside somewhere in the PATH, named brew-<cmdname> or
brew-<cmdname>.rb, which can be invoked like brew cmdname. This allows
you to create your own commands without modifying Homebrew's internals.
A number of (useful, but unsupported) example commands are included and
enabled by default:
$ ls `brew --repository`/Library/Contributions/examples
Documentation for the included external commands as well as instruc-
tions for creating your own can be found on the wiki:
http://wiki.github.com/mxcl/homebrew/External-Commands
ENVIRONMENT
HOMEBREW_BUILD_FROM_SOURCE
If set, instructs Homebrew to compile from source even when a
formula provides a bottle.
HOMEBREW_CACHE
If set, instructs Homebrew to use the give directory as the
download cache. Otherwise, ~/Library/Caches/Homebrew is used.
This can be used to keep downloads out of your home directory,
if you have it mounted on an SSD or are using FileVault for
instance.
HOMEBREW_CURL_VERBOSE
If set, Homebrew will pass --verbose when invoking curl(1).
HOMEBREW_DEBUG
If set, instructs Homebrew to always assume --debug when running
commands.
HOMEBREW_DEBUG_INSTALL
When brew install -d or brew install -i drops into a shell,
HOMEBREW_DEBUG_INSTALL will be set to the name of the formula
being brewed.
HOMEBREW_DEBUG_PREFIX
When brew install -d or brew install -i drops into a shell,
HOMEBREW_DEBUG_PREFIX will be set to the target prefix in the
Cellar of the formula being brewed.
HOMEBREW_EDITOR
If set, Homebrew will use this editor when editing a single for-
mula, or several formulae in the same directory.
NOTE: brew edit will open all of Homebrew as discontinuous files
and directories. TextMate can handle this correctly in project
mode, but many editors will do strange things in this case.
HOMEBREW_KEEP_INFO
If set, Homebrew will not remove files from share/info, allowing
them to be linked from the Cellar. To access these info files,
prepend share/info to your INFOPATH environment variable.
Example: export INFOPATH='/usr/local/share/info:/usr/share/info'
HOMEBREW_MAKE_JOBS
If set, instructs Homebrew to use the value of HOME-
BREW_MAKE_JOBS as the number of parallel jobs to run when build-
ing with make(1).
Default: the number of available CPU cores.
HOMEBREW_SVN
When exporting from Subversion, Homebrew will use HOMEBREW_SVN
if set, a Homebrew-built Subversion if installed, or the sys-
tem-provided binary.
Set this to force Homebrew to use a particular svn binary.
HOMEBREW_TEMP
If set, instructs Homebrew to use HOMEBREW_TEMP as the temporary
directory for building packages. This may be needed if your sys-
tem temp directory and Homebrew Prefix are on different volumes,
as OS X has trouble moving symlinks across volumes when the tar-
get does not yet exist.
This issue typically occurs when using FileVault or custom SSD
configurations.
HOMEBREW_USE_CLANG
If set, instructs Homebrew to compile using clang.
HOMEBREW_USE_GCC
If set, instructs Homebrew to compile using gcc.
HOMEBREW_USE_LLVM
If set, instructs Homebrew to compile using LLVM.
NOTE: Not all formulae build correctly with LLVM.
HOMEBREW_VERBOSE
If set, instructs Homebrew to always assume --verbose when run-
ning commands.
USING HOMEBREW BEHIND A PROXY
Homebrew uses several commands for downloading files (e.g. curl, git,
svn). Many of these tools can download via a proxy. It's common for
these tools to read proxy parameters from environment variables.
For the majority of cases setting http_proxy is enough. You can set
this in your shell profile, or you can use it before a brew command:
http_proxy=http://<host>:<port> brew install foo
If your proxy requires authentication:
http_proxy=http://<user>:<password>@<host>:<port> brew install foo
SEE ALSO
Homebrew Wiki: http://wiki.github.com/mxcl/homebrew/
git(1), git-log(1)
AUTHORS
Max Howell, a splendid chap.
BUGS
See Issues on GitHub: http://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/issues
Homebrew March 2012 BREW(1)
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