First ensure you have Homebrew version '0.9.5' or higher:
$ brew --version
0.9.5
Install the homebrew-cask tool:
$ brew install caskroom/cask/brew-cask
Homebrew-cask is implemented as a subcommand of Homebrew. All homebrew-cask
commands begin with brew cask
. Homebrew-cask has its own set of command
verbs many of which are similar to Homebrew's. The most frequently-used
commands are:
search
-- searches all known Casksinstall
-- installs the given Caskuninstall
-- uninstalls the given Cask
The brew cask search
command accepts a series of substring arguments.
Let's see if there's a Cask for Google Chrome:
$ brew cask search chrome
google-chrome
A search
command with no search term will list all available Casks:
$ brew cask search
# <list of all available Casks>
The command brew cask install
accepts a Cask name as returned by brew cask search
.
Let's try to install Google Chrome:
$ brew cask install google-chrome
==> Downloading https://dl.google.com/chrome/mac/stable/GGRO/googlechrome.dmg
==> Success! google-chrome installed to /opt/homebrew-cask/Caskroom/google-chrome/stable-channel
==> Linking Google Chrome.app to /Users/paulh/Applications/Google Chrome.app
Easy peasy:
$ brew cask uninstall google-chrome
This will both uninstall the Cask and remove symlinks which were created in
~/Applications
.
To uninstall all versions of a Cask, use --force
:
$ brew cask uninstall --force google-chrome
Note that uninstall --force
is currently imperfect. See the man page for
more information.
info
-- displays information about the given Casklist
-- with no args, lists installed Casks; given installed Casks, lists staged filesfetch
-- downloads Cask resources to local cache (with--force
, re-download even if already cached)doctor
-- checks for configuration issuescleanup
-- cleans up cached downloads (with--outdated
, only cleans old downloads)home
-- opens the homepage of the given Cask; or with no arguments, the homebrew-cask project pagealfred
-- modifies Alfred's scope to include the Caskroomupdate
-- a synonym forbrew update
zap
-- try to remove all files associated with a Cask (including resources which may be shared with other applications)
The following commands are for Cask authors:
audit
-- verifies installability of Caskscat
-- dumps the given Cask to the standard outputcreate
-- creates a Cask and opens it in an editoredit
-- edits the given Cask
The following aliases and abbreviations are provided for convenience:
ls
--list
-S
--search
rm
,remove
--uninstall
up
--update
dr
--doctor
List all installed Casks
$ brew cask list
adium google-chrome onepassword
Show details about a specific Cask:
$ brew cask info caffeine
caffeine: 1.1.1
http://lightheadsw.com/caffeine/
Not installed
https://github.com/caskroom/homebrew-cask/blob/master/Casks/caffeine.rb
Since the homebrew-cask repository is a Homebrew Tap, you'll pull down the latest
Casks every time you issue the regular Homebrew command brew update
. Currently,
homebrew-cask cannot always detect if an Application has been updated. You
can force an update via the command brew cask install --force
. We are working
on improving this.
It is generally safe to run updates from within an Application.
When a new version homebrew-cask is released, it will appear in the output of
brew outdated
after running brew update
. You can upgrade it via the normal
Homebrew brew upgrade
workflow:
$ brew update && brew upgrade brew-cask && brew cleanup && brew cask cleanup
The primary homebrew-cask Tap includes most of the Casks that a typical user will be interested in. There are a few additional Taps where we store different kinds of Casks.
Tap name | description |
---|---|
caskroom/versions | contains alternate versions of Casks (e.g. betas, nightly releases, old versions) |
caskroom/fonts | contains Casks that install fonts, which are kept separate so we can educate users about the different licensing landscape around font installation/usage |
caskroom/unofficial | contains Casks that install unofficial builds or forks |
There are also alternate Cask Taps maintained by users.
You can tap any of the above with a brew tap
command:
$ brew tap <tap_name>
after which, Casks from the new Tap will be available to search
or install
just like Casks from the main Tap.
brew update
will automatically keep your new Tap up to date.
You may also specify a fully-qualified Cask name (which includes the Tap) for any brew cask
command. This will implicitly add the Tap if you have not previously added it with brew tap
:
$ brew cask install caskroom/fonts/font-symbola
brew cask
accepts a number of options:
--version
: print version and exit--debug
: output debug information--no-binaries
: skip symlinking executable binaries into/usr/local/bin
You can also modify the default installation locations used when issuing brew cask install
:
--caskroom=/my/path
determines where the actual applications will be located. Default is/opt/homebrew-cask/Caskroom
--appdir=/my/path
changes the path where the symlinks to the applications (above) will be generated. This is commonly used to create the links in the root Applications directory instead of the home Applications directory by specifying--appdir=/Applications
. Default is~/Applications
.--prefpanedir=/my/path
changes the path for PreferencePane symlinks. Default is~/Library/PreferencePanes
--qlplugindir=/my/path
changes the path for Quicklook Plugin symlinks. Default is~/Library/QuickLook
--widgetdir=/my/path
changes the path for Dashboard Widget symlinks. Default is~/Library/Widgets
--fontdir=/my/path
changes the path for Fonts symlinks. Default is~/Library/Fonts
--binarydir=/my/path
changes the path for binary symlinks. Default is/usr/local/bin
--input_methoddir=/my/path
changes the path for Input Methods symlinks. Default is~/Library/Input Methods
--screen_saverdir=/my/path
changes the path for Screen Saver symlinks. Default is~/Library/Screen Savers
To make these settings persistent, you might want to add the following line to your .bash_profile
or .zshenv
:
# Specify your defaults in this environment variable
export HOMEBREW_CASK_OPTS="--appdir=/Applications --caskroom=/etc/Caskroom"
Note that you still can override the environment variable HOMEBREW_CASK_OPTS
by explicitly providing
options in the command line:
# Will force the Chrome app to be linked to ~/Applications
# even though HOMEBREW_CASK_OPTS specified /Applications
$ brew cask install --appdir="~/Applications" google-chrome
The default search algorithm is a lax substring approach, which does not
use the command-line arguments exactly as given. If you need to specify
a search more precisely, a single search argument enclosed in /
characters
will be taken as a Ruby regular expression:
$ brew cask search '/^google.c[a-z]rome$/'
google-chrome
Most brew cask
commands can accept a Cask name as an argument. As described
above, a Cask name on the command line can take the form of:
- a Cask name as returned by
brew cask search
, eg:google-chrome
- a fully-qualified Cask name which includes the Tap, eg:
caskroom/fonts/font-symbola
brew cask
also accepts three other forms for Cask names:
- a path to a Cask file, eg:
/usr/local/Cellar/brew-cask/0.25.0/Casks/google-chrome.rb
- a
curl
-retrievable URI to a Cask file, eg:https://raw.github.com/caskroom/homebrew-cask/f54bbfaae0f2fa7210484f46313a459cb8a14d2f/Casks/google-chrome.rb
- a file in the current working directory, eg:
my-modfied-google-chrome.rb
. Note that Tapped Casks names will be preferred over this form. To force the use of a Cask file in the current directory, specify a pathname with slashes, eg:./google-chrome.rb
.
The last three forms are intended for users who wish to maintain private Casks.
You can add Casks to your existing (or new) Taps: just create a directory named
Casks
inside your Tap, put your Cask files there, and everything will just work.
/opt/homebrew-cask/Caskroom
as a Search Scope in Alfred's preferences or
I've been using Casks along with Alfred 2 to great effect. Just add
manage the scope addition via brew cask alfred link
. Then applications become
available in Alfred immediately after a brew cask install
. Your fingertips
will thank you.
Oh, and you can brew cask install alfred
too! Not bad, eh?