CODEWITHSUNDEEP
homebrew
vikas027
vikas027

Reputation: 5762

Configure Homebrew to not delete old versions

When I install a package through homebrew, it removes the old versions.

$ brew upgrade terraform
🍺  /usr/local/Cellar/terraform/0.11.14: 6 files, 42.4MB
Removing: /usr/local/Cellar/terraform/0.11.13... (6 files, 120.6MB)
Removing: /Users/vikas/Library/Caches/Homebrew/terraform--0.11.13.mojave.bottle.tar.gz... (25.4MB)

How can I disable this so that I can switch back to older versions.

$ brew switch [formula] [version]

Upvotes: 13

Views: 63018

Answers (2)

pasignature
pasignature

Reputation: 585

That looks weird because usually homebrew does not actually delete old versions right away, it usually keeps them so you can switch back later. Except maybe you have been doing brew cleanup.

If you have not been removing the older versions, then you have a chance for some older version of your programs to be there inactive. You can simply reactivate those previous versions using brew switch to brew older versions. e.g.

$ brew info mysql (to get info about the installed versions)
$ brew switch mysql 5.7.21 (to switch to a stable version)

Alternatively, you use force like so: e.g.

brew link --force [email protected]

EXCEPT you are using 2.0, then YES, This happens as-of 2.0.0., auto cleanup is default. Use man brew and see how to opt-out of this behavior.

Checkout brew --force in man brew

Upvotes: 2

vikas027
vikas027

Reputation: 5762

This behavior can be avoided by setting a variable export HOMEBREW_NO_INSTALL_CLEANUP=TRUE in ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc (or specific to your shell).

Once done, you can check whether it has been applied correctly by:

$ brew config | grep HOMEBREW_NO_INSTALL_CLEANUP
HOMEBREW_NO_INSTALL_CLEANUP: TRUE
$

This was introduced in v1.9.0 and has been documented in man brew as well, but is easy to miss :)

Unless HOMEBREW_NO_INSTALL_CLEANUP is set, brew cleanup will be run for the installed formulae or, every 30 days, for all formulae

References: - https://github.com/Homebrew/brew/issues/5654

Upvotes: 33

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