🍺 brew-export

Export your Homebrew setup — taps, packages, casks, and Mac App Store apps — into a portable Brewfile and self-contained install script.

brew_export.sh snapshots your entire Homebrew environment and selected dotfiles into a single tarball you can drop on a new Mac and run. One script in, one script out.

---

Features

• 📦 Dumps a Brewfile via brew bundle — formulae, casks, taps, and MAS apps
• 🔧 Detects custom taps and bakes them into the install script
• 🛍️ Detects Mac App Store apps (via mas) and handles sign-in gracefully on restore
• 🗂️ Scans ~ and ~/.ssh for dotfiles and lets you select which ones to include
• ✨ Interactive multi-select via fzf (falls back to a numbered checklist if fzf isn't installed)
• 🗜️ Packages everything into a single <name>.tar.gz tarball — Brewfile, install script, and dotfiles together
• 🔒 Security warnings when SSH keys or sensitive files are included
• 🎨 Colorized, emoji-annotated output throughout

---

Requirements

• macOS
• Homebrew
• brew bundle (included with Homebrew)

Optional but recommended:

• mas — required to capture Mac App Store apps; installed automatically if App Store apps are detected (brew install mas)
• fzf — enables interactive dotfile selection (brew install fzf)

---

Usage

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/zackwag/brew-export.git
cd brew-export

# Make executable
chmod +x brew_export.sh

# Run — defaults to your hostname as the output name
./brew_export.sh

# Or specify a custom name
./brew_export.sh my-macbook-setup

This produces a tarball in the current directory:

my-macbook-setup.tar.gz

---

What's inside the tarball

my-macbook-setup/
├── my-macbook-setup.Brewfile       # brew bundle dump output
├── my-macbook-setup_install.sh     # self-contained restore script
└── dotfiles/                       # any dotfiles you selected
    ├── .zshrc
    ├── .gitconfig
    └── .ssh/
        └── config

---

Restoring on a new machine

Transfer the tarball to the new Mac, then:

tar -xzf my-macbook-setup.tar.gz
cd my-macbook-setup
bash my-macbook-setup_install.sh

The install script will walk through these steps automatically:

Step	What happens
1. Homebrew	Checks if Homebrew is installed; installs it if not (handles Apple Silicon path automatically)
2. Custom taps	Re-adds any custom taps captured at export time
3. App Store	Checks mas sign-in; if not signed in, installs everything else and exits cleanly with instructions
4. Brew bundle	Runs brew bundle install from the Brewfile
5. Dotfiles	Copies dotfiles to ~; prompts per file if one already exists

Dotfile conflict resolution

When a dotfile already exists at the destination, you'll be prompted:

⚠️  Already exists: ~/.zshrc
What would you like to do?
[o] Overwrite   [s] Skip   [b] Backup and overwrite
>

Choosing backup saves the existing file as .zshrc.bak.YYYYMMDDHHMMSS before overwriting.

---

Mac App Store apps

If your Brewfile contains App Store apps, brew_export.sh will automatically install mas via Homebrew if it isn't already present — no manual setup required.

If the target machine isn't signed into the App Store when the install script runs, it will install all non-MAS packages first, then exit with clear instructions to sign in and re-run.

---

Security

⚠️ If you include ~/.ssh files, your tarball may contain private keys.

• The script will warn you prominently when SSH files are selected
• Store and transfer the tarball securely — encrypted drive, private channel, etc.
• Never commit a tarball containing SSH keys or secrets to a public repository

---

License

MIT