Anyone using Homebrew on macOS? What are the benefits?
@mindofaaronw I was using Homebrew on my work Mac, but switched to MacPorts and have no plans to go back. I started having build issues and quirks with Homebrew, but the bigger issue was security. It uses /usr/local as the base for its folder, and changes folder permissions—and builds from source—in the context of your user account. This goes against UNIX file practices, and leaves you open to a privilege escalation.
MacPorts builds under a “nobody” account, and adheres to best OS security practices whereby the installed binaries are owned by root. It also uses /opt/local, which is the proper place to install this kind of third party software.
@mindofaaronw Last I compared it had significantly more ports, and I’m missing nothing necessary on my work machine. It will also download binaries if available, limiting the compile time.
@mindofaaronw I use Homebrew. If you install, consider the Untar anywhere approach. They claim it’s unsupported, but I have never had an issue with it.
As for why: I enjoy a package manager for ease of keeping tools up-to-date. As for why Homebrew: it’s the first one I tried and it worked, therefore I never explored alternatives.