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Homebrew⚓︎

Homebrew is an excellent, open source package manager for macOS. It's full of useful GUI programs as well as command line utilities that can be easily installed.

It should keep them up to date without requiring conscious individual checks, and should install the right versions for my architecture (i.e., Intel x64 or Apple Silicon) and OS version.

Installation⚓︎

Install Homebrew with the instructions at https://brew.sh/.(1) This should also install the XCode Command Line Tools which is useful for software development.(2)

  1. You may need to manually add the Homebrew executable to your PATH. See cli.md/#zshrc
  2. The manpage is at https://docs.brew.sh/Manpage, containing a bunch of useful commands like autoremove (to remove unused dependencies).

Useful CLI utilities⚓︎

brew install --cask antigravity-cli
brew install emacs  # (1)
brew install git  # (2)
brew link --overwrite git  # (3)
brew install gnupg  # (4)
brew install poetry  # (5)
brew install pyenv  # (6)
brew install tree  # (7)
brew install uv  # (10)
brew install wget  # (8)
brew install zsh  # (9)
  1. Since it's not provided by default as of macOS Catalina. If I can't run emacs after it's been installed, do brew reinstall --cask --no-quarantine emacs.
  2. For a newer version than that bundled with macOS.
  3. So it's linked by default instead of the version bundled with macOS.
  4. GPG key generation utility (for signing Git commits).
  5. For Python project management.
  6. Best way of managing Python installs on Mac.
  7. Show directory trees (use -L <levels> options to show set number of levels).
  8. For wget command, like on linux.
  9. For a newer version than that bundled with macOS.
  10. An Python project manager even more modern than Poetry.

GUI applications⚓︎

Install the following GUI applications with

brew install --cask adobe-creative-cloud # (15)
brew install --cask android-file-transfer  # (1)
brew install --cask ankerwork  # (2)
brew install --cask antigravity-ide
brew install --cask arc
brew install --cask bartender  # (3)
brew install --cask blackhole-64ch  # (4)
brew install --cask chatgpt
brew install --cask discord
brew install --cask docker-desktop
brew install --cask filebot --force --no-quarantine  # (5)
brew install --cask github
brew install --cask google-chrome
brew install --cask google-drive
brew install --cask google-gemini  # (16)
brew install --cask handbrake
brew install --cask hyper  # (6)
brew install --cask jetbrains-toolbox
brew install --cask logi-options+
brew install --cask mactex  # (7)
brew install --cask mimestream  # (8)
brew install --cask mkvtoolnix  # (9)
brew install --cask obsidian
brew install --cask openemu  # (10)
brew install --cask plex
brew install --cask quicklook-video  # (11)
brew install --cask raindropio
brew install --cask runescape
brew install --cask sidequest  # (12)
brew install --cask steam
brew install --cask surfshark
brew install --cask tailscale-app  # (14)
brew install --cask the-unarchiver  # (17)
brew install --cask todoist
brew install --cask vivid  # (13)
brew install --cask vlc
brew install --cask whatsapp
  1. For copying files to Oculus Quest.
  2. For configuring my webcam.
  3. For menu bar organisation. Requires a licence.
  4. For capturing audio output alongside a screen recording.
  5. For batch renaming of files. Additional options required to start up properly.
  6. A nicer, modern terminal.
  7. For MacTeX distro of TeXLive with GUI applications.
  8. A modern, macOS-native Gmail client. Requires a subscription.
  9. For quickly adding/removing embedded audio and subtitle tracks from MKV files.
  10. Retro video game emulator.
  11. For thumbnails for mkv and other file formats.
  12. For sideloading more VR content onto Oculus Quest.
  13. Unlock higher brightness range on the display. Requires a licence.
  14. For remote access to other devices, e.g., a NAS.
  15. Manager for Lightroom and other Adobe products.
  16. Desktop client for Gemini's chat interface.
  17. A more versatile tool for decompressing archives than the built-in one.

Typically, the --cask option is used when you want to install GUI applications. Certain packages like handbrake can operate solely on the command line. So in that case, just doing brew install handbrake would install the formula (the CLI-only version), where brew install --cask handbrake will install the GUI application that sits in my Applications folder.

For any issues with opening these programs, see https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mh40616/mac.

Updating⚓︎

Upgrade Homebrew packages with

brew upgrade
brew upgrade --cask

Casks with auto-update utilities (like a lot of GUI applications) won't be updated when the above commands are run; the built-in updaters will maintain them in those cases. To force them to update with Homebrew, run

brew upgrade --greedy

Viewing⚓︎

Check everything that's installed with

brew list

Check only top-level formulae with

brew leaves

Add the -r option for formulae that were explicitly installed, or -p for formulae installed as a dependency of a cask.

Check which formulae and casks are using a specific dependency with

brew uses --installed --recursive <dependency>

Cleanup and uninstalling⚓︎

Homebrew should run a cleanup of caches and old files every so often. For manual scrubbing, run

brew cleanup -s --prune all

Uninstall a formula/cask with

brew uninstall <formula/cask>

Add the --zap option to remove all associated files.

Uninstall unused dependencies of formulae/casks with

brew autoremove

Porting⚓︎

All the programs Homebrew has installed can be easily ported to a new machine.

  1. Generate a manifest of installed formulae and casks with

    brew bundle dump
    1. This will create a Brewfile in the user's home directory

  2. Copy the Brewfile to the new machine and install the contents with

    brew bundle install

Bartender 5 triggers⚓︎

Bartender contains functionality to show a (normally-hidden) menu bar item based on a trigger. These can be on specific WiFi connections, battery percentages, or shell scripts. New triggers can be added in Bartender's settings Triggers.

Private Internet Access trigger⚓︎

One thing I would like to be aware of is when my VPN Private Internet Access (PIA) is active. The most robust trigger for this case is a script, pasting the following:

PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/bin"
[[ "$(piactl get connectionstate)" != "Connected" ]]; echo "$?"

Now it will show the PIA icon when the VPN is connected. An unintuitive subtlety with these shell scripts is that Bartender designates 1 as True and 0 as False - the opposite of the Unix default! This is why the operator above is != instead of ==.