If you're a software developer, you're probably very familiar with running commands in the terminal window. If you're like me and come from a Linux background you're probably very familiar with package managers and used them to install, remove and update software on your machine.
If you're also like me and have recently started developing software using an Apple Mac book Pro, you may have been wondering if Apple have some sort of Package Manager ?
What is a package manager
A package manager or package management system is a collection of software tools that automates the process of installing, upgrading, configuring, and removing computer programs for a computer's operating system in a consistent manner. A package manager deals with packages, distributions of software and data in archive files. Packages contain metadata, such as the software's name, description of its purpose, version number, vendor, checksum, and a list of dependencies necessary for the software to run properly. Upon installation, metadata is stored in a local package database. Package managers typically maintain a database of software dependencies and version information to prevent software mismatches and missing prerequisites. They work closely with software repositories and app stores.
Wikipedia
Homebrew is billed as the missing package manager for Mac OSX. It simplifies the task of installing terminal utilities and graphical applications using the terminal window. It is designed to look and act like a typical *nix package manager.
The first step to installing Homebrew requires you to install xcode if you haven't already installed it.
Open the terminal window and execute the following command
Once that complete then you're ready to install HomeBrew by running the following command in the terminal window
After installing any new software using the terminal window it's always to refresh the window by source ~/.bash_profile or closing the window and open it again.
Once the installation is complete you can check if HomeBrew is now ready to be used on your system by running the doctor command
you should see a line in your terminal window
You can now install your desired software packages using HomeBrew. To find out if HomeBrew has any install packages you need you can simply search by the name of your chosen application brew search packageName
For instance, I use Gimp for all graphic manipulation, so I search homebrew for the install files
If the package exists you can simply install it using brew install packageName
So to install Gimp you simply need to execute the following command
To Uninstall any packages it simply brew uninstall packageName
To check to see what packages are available and even browse to verify what contents are in them . You can browse too Braumeister
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