How to make sense of your Homebrew dependencies

Homebrew is a popular package manager for macOS and Linux operating systems.

It is a go to tool, used by developers, designed to simplify the installation and management of software packages, libraries, and development tools.

It’s straightforward package installation process makes it a popular choice for developers and system administrators.

However, after some time the installed dependencies can become convoluted.

Here’s a great tip on how to generate a Homebrew dependencies graph to make sense of it all:

brew tap martido/homebrew-graph
brew install graphviz
brew graph --installed --highlight-leaves | fdp -Tpng -ograph.png
open graph.png

Should you install Homebrew?

Here are some of the benefits:

1. Package Management: Homebrew provides a command-line interface that allows users to easily install, update, and uninstall software packages. These packages can include a wide range of applications, utilities, and development tools.
2. User-Friendly: Homebrew aims to be user-friendly and strives to offer a straightforward installation process. Users can typically install packages with a single command, and Homebrew will take care of dependencies and system-specific configurations.
3. Community-Driven: Homebrew is an open-source project with an active community of contributors. This means that it benefits from continuous development and updates, ensuring that it remains compatible with the latest software releases and system updates.
4. Formulae: In Homebrew, packages are defined using “formulae.” Each formula contains the information needed to build and install a specific package, including dependencies, source code location, and installation instructions. The community maintains a vast repository of formulae.
5. Customisation: Homebrew allows users to customize their package installations and manage version-specific dependencies easily. This flexibility is particularly valuable for developers and power users.
6. Cross-Platform: While Homebrew was initially designed for macOS, a Linux version, called Linuxbrew, has been developed, allowing users to enjoy the same package management capabilities on various Linux distributions.
7. Security: Homebrew places an emphasis on security and encourages users to verify the integrity of packages they install. It also provides mechanisms to check for package updates and security patches.