Rolfe Dlugy-Hegwer

Tag: homebrew

  • Command ‘brew’ not found

    Command ‘brew’ not found

    Let me guess: you just installed Homebrew on your Linux system because you were going to use it to install some other software. Instead, when you tried to install the software, you got something like this:

    $ brew install <software-name>
Command 'brew' not found

    This response means the command can’t find the brew application binary. This happened because the Homebrew installation omits an essential step: adding the path of the brew binary to the Linux $PATH variable.

    To fix this, you must add an instruction to your ~/.profile or ~/.bashrc configuration file that adds the path of the brew binary to the Linux $PATH variable.

    So, what is the path of the brew binary?

    Earlier, when you installed Homebrew, the output showed the location of the brew binary. Optional: Scroll up through your command history to see if it is still visible. For example:

    $ /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
==> Checking for `sudo` access (which may request your password).
==> This script will install:
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/bin/brew
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/share/doc/homebrew
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/share/man/man1/brew.1
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/share/zsh/site-functions/_brew
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/etc/bash_completion.d/brew
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew

Press RETURN to continue or any other key to abort

    If you have root privileges, brew installed to /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/bin/brew. Otherwise, if you don’t have root privileges, it installed to ~/.linuxbrew/bin/brew.

    In any case, the following commands (which I found slightly buried in the Homebrew documentation) will sort this out. They find which path has the brew binary and adds it to your .profile configuration file. Paste the following commands in your terminal.

    test -d ~/.linuxbrew && eval $(~/.linuxbrew/bin/brew shellenv)
test -d /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew && eval $(/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/bin/brew shellenv)
test -r ~/.bash_profile && echo "eval \$($(brew --prefix)/bin/brew shellenv)" >>~/.bash_profile
echo "eval \$($(brew --prefix)/bin/brew shellenv)" >>~/.profile

    After this, restart your terminal. When you do this, .profile adds the path to your system’s $PATH variable.

    Now, verify that the brew command works by using it to install some software. Please let me know how this works for you. If not, I’ll try adding some troubleshooting steps.

    Now…why was I installing Homebrew? Ah yes, I installed it so I could install the GitHub CLI:

    rolfedh@rolfedh-HP-Z2-Mini-G3-Workstation:~$ brew install gh
==> Homebrew is run entirely by unpaid volunteers. Please consider donating:
  https://github.com/Homebrew/brew#donations
==> Auto-updated Homebrew!
Updated 1 tap (homebrew/core).
==> Updated Formulae
Updated 48 formulae.
Updating Homebrew...

==> Downloading https://ghcr.io/v2/linuxbrew/core/gh/manifests/2.0.0
######################################################################## 100.0%
==> Downloading https://ghcr.io/v2/linuxbrew/core/gh/blobs/sha256:ac34664fe701dc
==> Downloading from https://pkg-containers.githubusercontent.com/ghcr1/blobs/sh
######################################################################## 100.0%
==> Pouring gh--2.0.0.x86_64_linux.bottle.tar.gz
==> Caveats
Bash completion has been installed to:
  /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/etc/bash_completion.d
==> Summary
🍺  /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Cellar/gh/2.0.0: 97 files, 27.8MB
rolfedh@rolfedh-HP-Z2-Mini-G3-Workstation:~$