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Brandon Wie
Brandon Wie

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How to easily migrate Homebrew formulas to another MacBook?

#homebrew #bundle #setting #macbook

I mainly use the Homebrew to manage almost every app or program, even apps on the App Store using mas. It becomes a bit of a pain when I set up a new MacBook because it takes time for me to look for the list of the apps and programs on my main MacBook and install one them by one on my new MacBook.

I recently figured out a handy way to set up brew formulas in a new device using homebrew-bundle and symbolic link bash command.

This post is written based on an assumption that you already have brew installed and actively using it on your Mac.

Step 1. Save your current settings in .dotfiles/mac/Brewfile

I use .dotfiles folder to save settings (dotfiles, config files, etc.) and it's saved on my private GitHub repository.

The explanation will be based on my setting.

1. Create the source folders and Brewfile 

mkdir --parents ~/.dotfiles/mac && touch ~/.dotfile/mac/Brewfile
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2. Create a symlink to the ~/Brewfile 

# the target file will be generated automatically
ln -s ~/.dotfiles/mac/Brewfile ~/Brewfile
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Why'd you be bothered to create extra ./Brewfile? Because brew bundle command that we're going to use a lot uses ~/Brewfile by default.

You can specify the path to the Brewfile inside the .dotfiles/mac folder, or the path of whatever source folder you use for your setting at the end of the command with --file flag:

# in my case
brew bundle install --file=~/.dotfiles/mac/Brewfile
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However, I just prefer to keep things simple regarding the commands and not touch my source file if I can.

3. Whenever you remove/install new formulas on your main Mac, dump your new bundle settings to the ~/Brewfile; it will update ~/.dotfiles/mac/Brewfile automatically. 

# need to force because the file already exists
brew bundle dump --force
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FYI: any changes you make on any of the two linked files will be applied to one another, but deleting the target file(linked file) won't remove the source file.

Step 2. (on your new MacBook) copy the .dotfiles folder and create a symlink to ~/Brewfile

As I mentioned earlier, you can specify the path to the source Brewfile and not create a symlink.

1. paste .dotfiles folder to a new mac (~/.dotfiles)

2. install brew 

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"
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3. create a symlink to ~/Brewfile from the Brewfile inside .dotfiles folder 

ln -s ~/.dotfiles/mac/Brewfile ~/Brewfile
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4. install bundles from ~/Brewfile 

brew bundle install
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All good and ready!

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