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Homebrew: Permissions Denied Issue Fix (OS X / macOS)

Homebrew Permissions Denied Issues Solution

sudo chown -R $(whoami) $(brew --prefix)/*

@dulfrey
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dulfrey commented Jun 29, 2022

thank you 😁

@Sameto
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Sameto commented Jul 26, 2022

This just save my bacon... Thanks a lot...

@isobe-h
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isobe-h commented Aug 1, 2022

thank you!

@gustavolsilvano
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It worked! Thank you!

@EagleFace5000
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Youre a genius my friend, thank you!

@carlosmmairena
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Thank you!

@yezhengli-Mr9
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my solution with link: /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

and command: sudo chown -R "$(whoami)":admin /usr/local

it ":admin" for sum in user

MacOS BigSur 11.4
Thanks~

@philipbankier
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Thank you ser!

@nnq1
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nnq1 commented Nov 10, 2022

great, you save my life

@ThorstenClaus
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In my case I had to setup a new local user on my machine and to remove the old one.
Then the folder ( defined by brew --prefix ) looses its owner.
With this the owner is set to the new local user and - it works!

@hyprcodr
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In my case, had this problem as I created a new user for development and installed brew in my original Mac OS Monterey user account. The mentioned solution solved my problem. Thanks !

@Emiya0306
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Nice~ Greate job!

@medwant
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medwant commented Jun 13, 2023

Thanks! Worked for me (macOS Ventura 13.3.1)

@emivlp
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emivlp commented Oct 9, 2023

Hi ! how can i fix this
/Users/emvlp/.zprofile:24: permission denied: /opt/homebrew/bin/brew
Could someone tell me the steps?
Thank you so much !

@Tony-MK
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Tony-MK commented Oct 28, 2023

Thanks @erma4ina

@ignoracenfly
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ignoracenfly commented Oct 29, 2023 via email

@MrMacvos
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MrMacvos commented Nov 1, 2023

and command: sudo chown -R "$(whoami)":admin /usr/local

it ":admin" for sum in user

Thanks, this worked for me!

(macOS Ventura 13.9, Intel Mac)

@AndreasMueck
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Worked for me on Intel Mac with macOS Ventura 13.5. Thank you :)

@ignoracenfly
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ignoracenfly commented Nov 16, 2023 via email

@daveqs
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daveqs commented Dec 7, 2023

Worked for me on Monterey 12.6.5! (Late 2016, Intel silicon)

@ignoracenfly
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ignoracenfly commented Dec 7, 2023 via email

@alstjd0051
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thank you

@ignoracenfly
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ignoracenfly commented Dec 24, 2023 via email

@VGerris
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VGerris commented Dec 28, 2023

Although this works, this is BAD solution.
The brew prefix $(brew --prefix) is /usr/local and that directory should be accessible for all users on the system.
With only one user, setting that to the current user is no problem, but as soons as a second user is added, this does not work and breaks all the permissions for it.
The proper way to do it is to have the installer use a group and make any user that needs access a member of it, so it works for multiple users.

The group on most folders is admin so adding a user to the admin group and making sure permissions between group and user are the same at least for directories brew uses should fix this.

The command to add user john to group admin is
sudo dseditgroup -o edit -a john -t user admin

@perth-seo-agency
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None of the above worked for me. Keep getting permissions errors when updating homebrew.

Example Permission Denied Error:

/Users/{insert username}/Library/Caches/Homebrew/api/formula_names.before.txt: Permission denied
The solution that worked was just deleting the cache files:

sudo rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/Homebrew/

Additionally, ran the following for good measure:

sudo chown -R {your username}:admin ~/Library/Caches/Homebrew/
sudo chmod -R 755 ~/Library/Caches/Homebrew/

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

@gao1143632516
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be of use

@ignoracenfly
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ignoracenfly commented Feb 29, 2024 via email

@sirkev
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sirkev commented Mar 22, 2024

thank you, the first solution worked for me on my headless macOS Catalina (version 10.15) ci server

@sirkev
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sirkev commented Mar 22, 2024

thank you !!! what exactly did I just do ??? 🤔🤔🤔 you saved my lifeee

the command changes the ownership of all files and directories within the Homebrew installation directory to the current user, effectively giving the current user full control over these files and directories.

i'm just coming from linux, it didn't hit me that could be the problem. like mention above this will break when you add another user. the solution by @VGerris would be much better if potentially you'd want to have other users in the system

@ignoracenfly
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ignoracenfly commented Mar 22, 2024 via email

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