MacOS – Homebrew and usr/local/include/ question

homebrewmacospython

I am trying to install python3 with homebrew and I would like to know if I can delete these files.
After running brew doctor, I get this message:

Unexpected header files:

/usr/local/include/node/android-ifaddrs.h
/usr/local/include/node/ares.h
/usr/local/include/node/ares_version.h
/usr/local/include/node/libplatform/libplatform.h
/usr/local/include/node/nameser.h
/usr/local/include/node/node.h
/usr/local/include/node/node_buffer.h
/usr/local/include/node/node_internals.h
/usr/local/include/node/node_object_wrap.h
/usr/local/include/node/node_version.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/aes.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/asn1.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/asn1_mac.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/asn1t.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/bio.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/blowfish.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/bn.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/buffer.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/camellia.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/cast.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/cmac.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/cms.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/comp.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/conf.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/conf_api.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/crypto.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/des.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/des_old.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/dh.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/dsa.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/dso.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/dtls1.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/e_os2.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/ebcdic.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/ec.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/ecdh.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/ecdsa.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/engine.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/err.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/evp.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/hmac.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/idea.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/krb5_asn.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/kssl.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/lhash.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/md4.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/md5.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/mdc2.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/modes.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/obj_mac.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/objects.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/ocsp.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/opensslconf.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/opensslv.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/ossl_typ.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/pem.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/pem2.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/pkcs12.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/pkcs7.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/pqueue.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/rand.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/rc2.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/rc4.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/ripemd.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/rsa.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/safestack.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/seed.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/sha.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/srp.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/srtp.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/ssl.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/ssl2.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/ssl23.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/ssl3.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/stack.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/symhacks.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/tls1.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/ts.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/txt_db.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/ui.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/ui_compat.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/whrlpool.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/x509.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/x509_vfy.h
/usr/local/include/node/openssl/x509v3.h
/usr/local/include/node/pthread-fixes.h
/usr/local/include/node/smalloc.h
/usr/local/include/node/stdint-msvc2008.h
/usr/local/include/node/tree.h
/usr/local/include/node/uv-aix.h
/usr/local/include/node/uv-bsd.h
/usr/local/include/node/uv-darwin.h
/usr/local/include/node/uv-errno.h
/usr/local/include/node/uv-linux.h
/usr/local/include/node/uv-sunos.h
/usr/local/include/node/uv-threadpool.h
/usr/local/include/node/uv-unix.h
/usr/local/include/node/uv-version.h
/usr/local/include/node/uv-win.h
/usr/local/include/node/uv.h
/usr/local/include/node/v8-debug.h
/usr/local/include/node/v8-platform.h
/usr/local/include/node/v8-profiler.h
/usr/local/include/node/v8-testing.h
/usr/local/include/node/v8-util.h
/usr/local/include/node/v8.h
/usr/local/include/node/v8config.h
/usr/local/include/node/v8stdint.h
/usr/local/include/node/zconf.h
/usr/local/include/node/zlib.h

Can EVERY single one of these files be deleted?

Best Answer

I would say yes. Homebrew will re-load any files it needs next time you install or update or have an error compiling a package.

To be safe, make a backup of the Mac - Time Machine is fine for this. Things in /usr/local aren't from OS X so you won't cause system issues removing these files.

brew rm node

The above command should clean up node.js and you could re-install it after cleaning up if you need it.

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