`brew upgrade` hangs on El Capitan

Question

I can't run brew upgrade without it hanging indefinitely. I'm using El Capitan OS. Here's the input/output:

>>$ brew upgrade
Updating Homebrew...
==> Auto-updated Homebrew!
Updated 2 taps (homebrew/core, homebrew/science).
==> Updated Formulae
artifactory         dovecot             node@4              scamper
chromedriver        node-build          openvpn
==> Deleted Formulae
pdksh

==> Upgrading 10 outdated packages, with result:
gcc 6.2.0, gdbm 1.12, libtiff 4.0.7, openssl 1.0.2j, pkg-config 0.29.1_2, python 2.7.12_2, homebrew/science/r 3.3.2, readline 7.0.1, sqlite 3.15.2, yara 3.5.0_1
==> Upgrading gcc
Warning: Building gcc from source:
  The bottle needs the Xcode CLT to be installed.
==> Using the sandbox
==> Downloading https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/gcc/gcc-6.2.0/gcc-6.2.0.tar.bz2
Already downloaded: /Users/r8t/Library/Caches/Homebrew/gcc-6.2.0.tar.bz2
==> Downloading https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/formula-patches/e9e0e
Already downloaded: /Users/r8t/Library/Caches/Homebrew/gcc--patch-863957f90a934ee8f89707980473769cff47ca0663c3906992da6afb242fb220.patch
==> Patching
==> Applying 6.1.0-jit.patch
patching file gcc/jit/Make-lang.in
==> ../configure --build=x86_64-apple-darwin15.6.0 --prefix=/usr/local/Cellar/gc
==> make bootstrap

And then nothing.

is this the first time you are installing home brew on your machine? — Erica, Dec 08 '16 at 02:00
No, I've had it forever, but likely the first upgrade or update since El Capitan. — travelingbones, Dec 08 '16 at 02:04

score 89 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 05 '17 at 23:51

89

It could be downloading something large and taking a long time. Try running the following so you can see the download progress:

brew update --debug --verbose

answered Dec 05 '17 at 23:51

Matthew Lock

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After doing that I got this: Another active Homebrew update process is already in progress.Please wait for it to finish or terminate it to continue. How do you know when "Another" is done? – user2568374 Sep 14 '18 at 14:43
22

`brew update --verbose` might be enough as `--debug` is quite confusing (e.g. verbose made it easy to see I had too many taps and it was blocking on one) – localhostdotdev May 11 '19 at 13:20
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This was helpful as I was able to see it was actually doing something. – aubreypwd Oct 09 '20 at 12:57
4

`brew update-reset` fixed it for me — it is very slow though, patience is necessary. – Nate Levin Nov 08 '22 at 22:59
@NateLevin not all heroes wear capes. Thank you very much! you saved me! – thelastinuit Mar 13 '23 at 14:18

score 71 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 29 '19 at 14:46

71

ctrl + c to exit the hanging upgrade.
Run brew doctor. It prompted me to
run brew cleanup to clean up false symlinks. Then I
ran brew doctor again and it prompted me
to install xcode CLT via the command sudo xcode-select --install.
Finally brew update worked.

edited Jul 29 '19 at 14:46

kross

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answered Dec 08 '16 at 02:04

travelingbones

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The `xcode-select --install` fixed the hanging GCC make for me. Thanks! – kontur Jan 19 '18 at 16:05
1

All I did was `brew doctor` then `brew prune`. Not sure why that solved it. I'm on High Sierra 10.13.2 – Geoff Lee Jan 25 '18 at 00:30
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Ctrl+c did not exit the hang – user2568374 Sep 14 '18 at 14:42
3

`brew prune` has been replaced with `brew cleanup` – blu Apr 19 '19 at 00:17

Muzahid · Answer 3 · 2019-08-24T14:51:41.407

27

Verbose mode does work for me:

brew update --verbose

edited Aug 24 '19 at 14:51

answered Aug 24 '19 at 12:22

Muzahid

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score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 15 '18 at 10:34

To add to the answer of @travelingbones, installation of gcc gets stuck when you do perform brew upgrade. You can further verify it by running this command

Verification of problem

brew install gcc

Instead of this, Doing following, speeds up the process, as brew installs precompiled version of gcc after x-code installation

Do this instead

sudo xcode-select --install
brew install gcc

`brew upgrade` hangs on El Capitan

4 Answers4