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03 - Install multiple apps with brew in macOS

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By Christian Arzu
6 min read

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Install multiple apps using brew

  • The Brewfile is a list of apps/packages installed by Homebrew

How to generate a Brewfile

  • To generate the Brewfile, use the brew bundle dump command
  • You don’t need to generate this file, is just an example in case you need to generate the Brewfile in the future
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mkdir -p /tmp/brew-dump-test
brew bundle dump --file=/tmp/brew-dump-test/Brewfile
  • To see the created file
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ls /tmp/brew-dump-test
  • In case you want to see the contents of your Brewfile use cat
    • Below is just an example of how a Brewfile would look like
    • Yours will look different
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cat /tmp/brew-dump-test/Brewfile

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linkarzu.@.mini~/github/dotfiles-latest on  main via 💎 v3.1.3
[24/02/02 07:47:41]
❯ cat /tmp/brew-dump-test/Brewfile
tap "homebrew/bundle"
tap "homebrew/cask-fonts"
tap "homebrew/services"
tap "jesseduffield/lazygit"
tap "koekeishiya/formulae"
brew "automake"
brew "openssl@3"
brew "bat"
brew "bind"
brew "bison"
brew "chruby"
brew "eza"
brew "fd"
brew "figlet"
brew "fontconfig"
  • Alternatively, if you want to save the Brewfile in the current directory don’t specify the path
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brew bundle dump
  • Inspect the Brewfile so you can see the apps

Install the apps listed in a Brewfile

  • To install the apps listed in the Brewfile
    • Don’t run the below command yet, we’ll install the apps we need shortly
    • But this will be useful when you need to install apps using your own file
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brew bundle --file=/tmp/brew-dump-test/Brewfile
  • Alternatively, if you are in the same directory where the Brewfile is, you can just run the command
    • Don’t run it just yet, we will install the apps we need from GitHub below
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brew bundle

How do I create a brewfile with my own apps?

  • In the previous video we saw how to install apps
    • Go and check that video if you have doubts
  • So if this is your first time installing brew apps, you have to manually install the apps one by one, searching for the correct commands in the https://formulae.brew.sh page
  • Once you have all the apps that you want, you generate your Brewfile following the steps in the How to generate a Brewfile section above

Do I need to store this Brewfile in github?

  • No, you can store a Brewfile that you have generated anywhere you want, when you need it, just download it and then install the apps listed in that file with the steps provided in the section above Install the apps listed in a Brewfile

Install apps from a brewfile hosted in github

  • We’ll install the apps I use as a base, which are needed for this video series
    • https://github.com/linkarzu/dotfiles-latest/blob/main/brew/00-base/Brewfile
    • The following command gets the contents of my Brewfile in github, and passes it directly to the brew bundle command. A local Brewfile won’t be created in your computer
  • In the video you will see I use my old and now unmaintained dotfiles-public repo.
  • The repo that is now maintained and up to date is dotfiles-latest.
  • All the commands in the blogpost are updated and point to the new dotfiles-latest repo.
    • If you encounter any issues or outdated parts, let me know
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curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/linkarzu/dotfiles-latest/main/brew/00-base/Brewfile | brew bundle --file=-
  • The apps below are optional, I use Neovim as my main editor, so will install it, it also includes other tools I use day to day
    • You don’t need to install these, unless you want to
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curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/linkarzu/dotfiles-latest/main/brew/10-essential/Brewfile | brew bundle --file=-

Caveats

  • Some apps have caveats that need to be taken care of so they work
    • The caveats for each one of the apps I use, are already taken care of by my zshrc file, this is found on a later video related to my dotfiles
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brew list

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brew info zsh-autosuggestions
brew info zsh-vi-mode

# Not all the apps will show the install insctructions, but they can be found
# on the install page for each app. For example:
# https://starship.rs/guide/#🚀-installation
brew info starship

See all the caveats using a script

  • This section below is optional, doesn’t need to be done, but it’s good for learning or if you want to understand what’s going on
    • If you want to check the caveats for each one of the installed apps, there’s a script I found below:
      • https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13333585/how-do-i-replay-the-caveats-section-from-a-homebrew-recipe
    • 2nd script is the same, but with comments
    • Just copy and paste the code in your terminal
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for cmd in $(brew list); do
  if brew info $cmd | grep -q Caveats; then
    echo "$cmd\n";
    brew info $cmd | sed '/==> Caveats/,/==>/!d;//d';
    printf '%40s\n' | tr ' ' -;
  fi;
done;

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# This loop will go through each installed Homebrew package
for cmd in $(brew list); do

  # This line checks if there are any caveats for the current package
  # 'grep -q' suppresses the output and just returns an exit status
  # If caveats exist, the exit status will be 0 (success), triggering the if block
  if brew info $cmd | grep -q Caveats; then

    # This line will print the name of the current package followed by a newline
    echo "$cmd\n";

    # This line prints the caveats for the current package
    # The 'sed' command is used to print only the lines between '==> Caveats'
    # and the next '==>' line
    # The '/!d' at the end deletes all lines not matching the pattern, leaving
    # only the caveats
    # The '//d' deletes the 'Caveats' and next '==>' line itself
    brew info $cmd | sed '/==> Caveats/,/==>/!d;//d';

    # This line prints a 40-character long string of dashes
    # It's used to visually separate the caveats for different packages
    printf '%40s\n' | tr ' ' -;
  fi;

done;
  • This will not fix the caveats, just show them to you so you can fix them manually.
    • Don’t worry about the caveats, we’ll fix them in my dotfiles video
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