The brew command

Use man brew to view the manpage.

Command	Consequence
brew install foo	Installs foo
brew install --HEAD foo	Installs the HEAD version of foo (if defined in its recipe)
brew install --force --HEAD foo	Installs a newer HEAD version of foo
brew fetch --force -v --HEAD foo	Download the source package for the given formula. For tarballs, also prints MD5 and SHA1 checksums.
brew search	Lists all formula you can install
brew search foo	Searches for foo in formula available to install
brew search /foo/	Same as above but parses /foo/ as a regex
brew list	Lists all installed formulae
brew list foo	Lists the installed files for foo
brew info --github foo	Open your browser at the Github History page for foo
brew info	Summarises all installed Homebrew packages
brew info foo	Gives all available info foo (regardless of whether foo is installed)
brew home	Opens Homebrew’s homepage in your default browser
brew home foo	Opens foo ’s homepage in your default browser
brew update	Update homebrew formulae and Homebrew itself
brew remove foo	Uninstalls foo
brew create [url]	Generates a formula for the downloadable file at url and opens it in $BREW_EDITOR or $EDITOR 1
brew create url-of-tarball --cache	Generates a formula (including MD5), then downloads the tarball
brew create --macports foo	In default browser, open the MacPorts package search page, so you can see how they do foo
brew create --fink foo	Same thing, but for Fink
brew edit foo	Opens the formula in $HOMEBREW_EDITOR or $EDITOR
brew link foo	Symlinks all installed files for foo into the Homebrew prefix 2
brew unlink foo	Unsymlinks foo from the Homebrew prefix
brew prune	Removes dead symlinks from the Homebrew prefix 3
brew outdated	Shows formula that have an updated version available (brew install foo will install the newer version)
brew --config	Print some useful system configuration to the console
brew --prefix	Display the real path to your Homebrew prefix (usually /usr/local)
brew --prefix [formula]	Display the path where this formula is installed
brew --cellar	Display the real path to your Homebrew Cellar (usually /usr/local/Cellar)
brew --cache	Display the real path to where Homebrew caches downloads (usually ~/Library/Caches/Homebrew)
brew doctor	Checks your installation for common issues
brew audit	Audits all formulae for common code and style issues
brew cleanup foo	For all installed or specific formulae, removes any older versions from the cellar 4

You can update outdated packages like so:

brew install `brew outdated` (or brew outdated | xargs brew install (or brew upgrade))

¹ Homebrew will attempt to automatically derive the formula name and version, if it fails, you’ll have to make your own template. I suggest copying wget’s.

² This is done automatically when you install formula. It is useful for DIY installation, or in cases where you want to swap out different versions of the same package that you have installed at the same time.

³ This is generally not needed. However, it can be useful if you are doing DIY installations.

⁴ To delete only a specific out of date version, just go to the folder in the Cellar and “rm -rf” it, or drag it to the trash in Finder.