#Homebrew vs macports 2017 install#
#Homebrew vs macports 2017 pro#
#Homebrew vs macports 2017 software#
#Homebrew vs macports 2017 password#
#Homebrew vs macports 2017 mac#

I would not have cared as much, * except that after brew installed itself to /usr/local/ (because that was the “proper” place) it would routinely complain about other things installed in /usr/local/ by saying, in essence, “HEY?! WHO PUT THIS HERE? I DIDN’T PUT THIS HERE! DID YOU PUT THIS HERE? PUTTING THIS HERE MIGHT CAUSE PROBLEMS WITH brew!!”

#Homebrew vs macports 2017 software#

Their argument was that Apple creates /usr/local/, so why not use it? (Of course, Apple also creates /opt/ too, so that argument was never very strong.) They also said that /usr/local/ was the proper place for Unix-y software that the user installs. On the other hand, brew insisted that it should be installed to /usr/local/ and basically told you that if you installed it anywhere else, everything would break and the world would end. MacPorts has always installed itself to its own unique directory under /opt/. I forgot to mention this before when someone asked about why one might prefer MacPorts over brew:

#Homebrew vs macports 2017 mac#

But for the vast majority of Mac users who are using Macs where they are the admin and probably the only user, sudo is pretty irrelevant.

#Homebrew vs macports 2017 pro#

I’m not sure that I’d consider using sudo either a pro or a con. So… requiring sudo is a “pro”, and not requiring sudo is a “pro”? No need to worry if some rogue app will change your binaries or configuration.

#Homebrew vs macports 2017 install#

This is a great policy, but it causes issues when you want to create symlinks or install in places that SIP has changed permissions on.Ĭonfusingly, they also list this as a pro for MacPorts: One of the things to like about Homebrew is that it refuses to run things under sudo most of the time. Which oddly redundant since this is also already listed as a “pro” for brew: Not requiring root to install software is a big win. In addition to not having to deal with corruption problems, Homebrew installs packages in userland. The second part of the quote from above is this:

#Homebrew vs macports 2017 password#

pkg without entering your admin password, so why is it suddenly a terrible thing to have to enter your admin password to install command-line tools? You can’t install apps from the Mac App Store without entering your admin password, and you can’t install anything from a. What I don’t understand is why so many people make such a big deal out of using sudo. Now, I can’t speak to that myself, as I’m not familiar enough to say, but I wonder how often that actually happens, or is it just a thing that people know can happen, and therefore are concerned about it? What’s with the Mac Nerd Obsession about avoiding sudo ?! This simply hasn’t happened with Homebrew. Macports seems to be able to get into a bad state where new packages are unable to be installed, or installed software was unable to be updated. Looking down the list of “Pros” and “Cons” the only one that really stood out to me is this one, listed as a “Pro” for brew:

That’s an interesting article and one that I’ve not seen before. (See also “Installation Location” in my next post.) I could be wrong, but it doesn’t seem like it would be all that difficult to support older versions of macOS, but, as that is not something I can do myself, I have to go with what they offer. My biggest disappointment with brew is that they’re almost aggressive in dropping support for older versions of macOS as soon as they can, using the argument that “If Apple doesn’t support the OS, neither do we” which I don’t find particularly compelling. I can even use it on my 2007 iMac running El Capitan, which is pretty remarkable, IMO. There was a time when I thought that MacPorts was starting to be less supported, but either I was wrong, or things have changed again, because it seems quite active and robust.įor me, the advantage of using MacPorts would be that I could use it on all of my Macs, which now includes 3 aging, but still entirely functional, Mac minis, which can no longer be updated to newer versions of macOS (High Sierra, for 2 of them, I believe). Generally, I tend to think of them as very much “6 of one, a half-dozen of the other”.īrew tends to get more attention from the Mac community these days, but I’m not really sure why. What’s the benefit of using MacPorts instead of Brew?