Installing software on macOS via Homebrew

This guide will show you how to install and use Homebrew on your Mac. Homebrew is a package manager which will allow you to install lots of software for use with your slot.

Using the guide does mean you'll need to open up the terminal and run some commands, but they should hopefully be straight-forward. Copying and pasting is used where possible to make things even easier.

Table of contents

Installing Homebrew

You'll need to run the commands to install Homebrew in the terminal. To access the terminal, access your Applications folder, then open Utilities. You'll see Terminal in the list. To save time in the future you can drag the icon for Terminal on to the Dock. Once you have a terminal window open, copy and paste this command:

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

The script will take you through step-by-step so please follow its instructions. You may receive this message during the process:

The "xcode-select" command requires the command line developer tools. Would you like to install the tools now?

If you do get this message, simply click Install (you do not need to choose Get Xcode.

Continue following the instructions of the script and eventually it will complete. You'll be prompted to run brew doctor prior to installing anything - do so, simply by copying and pasting that as a command.

Installing software with Homebrew

Before installing any software, make sure to run brew update each time to ensure Homebrew is up-to-date. Then, it should be super simple to actually install the software, simply by using the command below, changing software to the name of the software:

brew install software

So, the following example would install lftp:

brew install lftp