MacOS – How to install an homebrew formula without updating homebrew itself

command linehomebrewmacos

When I install or reinstall a formula, homebrew automatically update itself before installing the formula.

When working on a slow connection, this is annoying. How can I cancel this automatic update?

Best Answer

According to this github issue and to the man page, the environment variable HOMEBREW_NO_AUTO_UPDATE can be set to 1.

HOMEBREW_NO_AUTO_UPDATE=1 brew install <formula>

This will stop the homebrew update for this command. If you want to prevent auto update for your shell session, use:

export HOMEBREW_NO_AUTO_UPDATE=1

to set it permanently, add it to your ~/.bash_profile. Note that changing this permanently is discouraged by the developers.

Related Solutions

Can’t re-install homebrew

Short term answer, try this command to see if your brew installation worked:

/usr/local/bin/brew doctor

It seems that your bash environment may not be looking in the /usr/local/bin for executibles (which means you have to write the full path rather than just the name of the command). The solution may be just resourcing your conf files, which can be roughly done by closing your terminal and opening a new one. Otherwise, you'll want to add a line to your ~/.bash_profile. I think resourcing will do the trick though.

So after confirming the success with the first doctor, try quitting your terminal application and starting fresh, then your original usage of brew should work. If it doesn't try:

echo $PATH

and report back the results.

MacOS – How to repair and/or reinstall Homebrew safely

Why don't you do what it says?

rm -rf /usr/local/Cellar /usr/local/.git && brew cleanup
ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

The first line is going to delete homebrew completely and then you should be able to reinstall it.

NOTE: If you do this you'll have to reinstall all the things you installed via homebrew.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Can’t re-install homebrew

MacOS – How to repair and/or reinstall Homebrew safely

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