How to install homebrew packages locally

Question

I got homebrew installed, however I do not have admin access. How do I install homebrew packages without admin access? Is there a local tag or something that I keep missing?

bfontaine · Accepted Answer · 2021-06-07T07:22:57.520

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Homebrew needs /usr/local to be chown-ed to your user, and you need sudo for that. If you can’t you have to install it elsewhere. Some people use ~/.brew or ~/homebrew; you can use anything but avoid paths with spaces. See the docs here.

Let’s say you want to install in ~/.brew; run the following command:

git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/Homebrew/brew ~/.brew

Then ensure the bin and sbin directories are in your PATH. If you’re using Bash add the following in your ~/.bash_profile:

export PATH="$HOME/.brew/bin:$HOME/.brew/sbin:$PATH"

Run source ~/.bash_profile or restart your shell and run brew doctor to see if it’s installed correctly. It should warn you it’s not installed into /usr/local but that’s expected here.

edited Jun 07 '21 at 07:22

answered Mar 08 '16 at 12:17

bfontaine

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I just want to add that, to make this work I had to run `brew update` first! – spicypumpkin May 12 '17 at 15:58
We ran this when the current version of brew was 2.1.4. These instructions yielded brew v1.7.x, which we easily `brew upgrade`d immediately. No sudo required! We did have to manually add the location of brew to the `PATH`, which is not mentioned). – Tom May 28 '19 at 20:12
Currently, the docs provided for [homebrew (legacy)](https://github.com/Homebrew/legacy-homebrew/blob/master/share/doc/homebrew/Installation.md#alternative-installs) is now outdated. ([last commit](https://github.com/Homebrew/legacy-homebrew/blob/15f291ddaa05cc010456a733b799382175c29dd4/share/doc/homebrew/Installation.md#alternative-installs)) See the new [updated link](https://github.com/Homebrew/brew/blob/master/docs/Installation.md#alternative-installs) ([commit](https://github.com/Homebrew/brew/blob/3f64bcb2fbffc663be53b1739c1e6009be9db055/docs/Installation.md#alternative-installs)) – Jun 04 '21 at 17:17

Astik Anand · Answer 2 · 2018-11-12T08:41:27.307

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To install homebrew without sudo.

git clone https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew.git
echo 'export PATH="/path/to/cloned_folder/homebrew/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile

Update the /path/to/cloned_folder with the path of the homebrew cloned folder.

Restart terminal and run

brew update
brew --version

edited Nov 12 '18 at 08:41

answered Sep 24 '18 at 06:19

Astik Anand

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Agreeing to the Xcode/iOS license requires admin privileges, please re-run as root via sudo. – WilliamK Mar 26 '20 at 02:08
But running OSX as the root user gets things moving, such as viewing and agreeing to the software licence. – WilliamK Mar 26 '20 at 02:23
What should I use for "/path/to/cloned_folder"? – WilliamK Mar 26 '20 at 02:29
@WilliamK, folder path is where you have done the git clone of hombrew. I mean that much you have think from your side. – Astik Anand Mar 26 '20 at 04:48

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 24 '19 at 05:03

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 git clone https://github.com/Homebrew/brew

 pwd

 echo 'export PATH="*RESULT_OF_PWD*/brew/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile

answered Jan 24 '19 at 05:03

Egor Ermolaev

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 05 '19 at 00:21

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if it's for programming/building purposes you could also is easy to download the formula, extract the download url, and unzip it in your prefix (is your local folder): it's json https://formulae.brew.sh/api/formula/gtk+3.json

answered Oct 05 '19 at 00:21

cancerbero

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How to install homebrew packages locally

4 Answers4