I’ve got some problems with the package manager, Homebrew. I can’t find how to remove it!
Is it safe to remove whole /usr/local? Homebrew was installed somewhere in that directory.
Homebrew once recommended a script, also linked in their FAQ. Instructions have changed since then, and they provide an official uninstall script you can download and run:
ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/uninstall)"
Here is a copy of the old script, for historical purposes:
cd `brew --prefix`
git checkout master
git ls-files -z | pbcopy
rm -rf Cellar
bin/brew prune
pbpaste | xargs -0 rm
rm -r Library/Homebrew Library/Aliases Library/Formula Library/Contributions
test -d Library/LinkedKegs && rm -r Library/LinkedKegs
rmdir -p bin Library share/man/man1 2> /dev/null
rm -rf .git
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/Homebrew
rm -rf ~/Library/Logs/Homebrew
rm -rf /Library/Caches/Homebrew
This should also revert your /usr/local folder to its pre-Homebrew days. See the Homebrew installation wiki for more information.
Note: You may also need to remove ~/.homebrew as well. If you happen to have ~/.rvm, then you should delete ~/.rvm/bin/brew.
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thank you so much! i've googled so hard, but even't bothered to look for uninstallation actions in installation manual! ;D – holms Oct 28 '10 at 15:36
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13Note that the instructions have changed over time, and also been moved to the Homebrew FAQ github.com/mxcl/homebrew/wiki/FAQ/… – Nelson Sep 10 '11 at 23:19
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Following these commands deleted almost all my files on
Desktop,Documentsand 'Downloads`. It messed up my git too. Please help! – Ava Aug 16 '13 at 22:53 -
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2If the first line of this script fails it will try to delete whatever is in your pasteboard. That could be a lot of your data. – ade Jan 16 '16 at 23:05
Homebrew provides an uninstall script located here.
Just run the following in the OSX terminal:
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/uninstall.sh)"
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2The Ruby uninstaller has been deprecated; they now recommend use of this Bash command:
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/uninstall.sh)"– Stack Overflown Nov 14 '20 at 16:11 -
Thanks @StackOverflown, I just updated the broken link and uninstall command. – RNickMcCandless Feb 2 at 17:59
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After running this command, I got below output ==> Homebrew uninstalled! The following possible Homebrew files were not deleted: /usr/local/.com.apple.installer.keep /usr/local/Frameworks/ /usr/local/Homebrew/ /usr/local/bin/ /usr/local/etc/ /usr/local/include/ /usr/local/lib/ /usr/local/opt/ /usr/local/share/ /usr/local/var/ You may wish to remove them yourself. – vikramvi Mar 13 at 10:49
Also note that homebrew changes group to 'staff' and gives write access to group for
/usr/local/usr/local/bin/usr/local/include/usr/local/lib/usr/local/sbin/usr/local/share
In order to put back these directories in their original states do:
sudo chown root:wheel <directory> ; sudo chmod 755 <directory>
for each one or if you don't have fancy owners / rights:
sudo chown -R root:wheel /usr/local ; sudo chmod -R 755 /usr/local
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1I cannot confirm this. My
/usr/localand its Homebrew-created subdirs are owned by my user with theadmingroup. – slhck Dec 26 '12 at 16:21
I recently made a script to handle this case. It completely removes Homebrew, and has CLI options like silent/verbose and force modes, as well as mode that returns the location of your Homebrew installation.
The ruby script now prints:
Warning: The Ruby Homebrew uninstaller is now deprecated and has been rewritten in
Bash. Please migrate to the following command:
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/uninstall.sh)"
So the right way to uninstall is apparently to run:
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/uninstall.sh)"
There might be other files in /usr/local you might need you might be able to user a different PM (Package Manager) to remove the current PM.
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