If you're an advanced Mac user who often works with the command line, then you probably already have Homebrew installed. Today we decided to share with you a list of the best Homebrew packages for Mac.
Homebrew makes it easy to install additional command line tools. If you still don't have it, after seeing the list of useful packages, you will definitely want to install Homebrew on your Mac.
For the list below to be useful to you, you need to know how to use the command line and install Homebrew on your Mac, if you haven't already. Then you can fully enjoy our collection.
cask
Cask makes it easy to install Mac OS GUI programs right from the command line using Homebrew. First you install cask, and then you can install regular programs from the command line using the command:
brew install cask
For example, if you want to install Chrome, the command would look like this:
brew cask install google-chrome
If you need to install iterm2:
brew cask install iterm2
Cask can install many programs Mac OS without downloading them from various sites and going through a lengthy installation process.
However, please note that the Cask package has some limitations. For example, it cannot install programs from a Mac App Store, nor can it install updates like the 'softwareupdate' command. Nevertheless, it is still a very handy and useful tool.
htop
Htop is a command line system resource monitor. It is essentially an advanced version of 'top' with a nice looking indicator of process activity, CPU activity, memory usage, download speed and process management. It's like the Activity Monitor for the command line, but even more useful.
brew install htop
Htop is a great tool that every command line needs.
wget
Wget can download data from web and ftp, i.e. it is one of the best tools for downloading anything using the command line. Perhaps you need to download one file from somewhere or a copy of an entire site. Either way, wget can handle it.
brew install wget
You can also install wget without Homebrew, but it's better to install the program itself.
nmap
Nmap is an excellent network security scanner. It can find network assets, discover local network services and hosts, scan ports, search for networks, detect operating systems and client and server software versions, and much more. It is a great tool for sysadmins, network administrators, security professionals and anyone else interested in scanning network activity.
brew install nmap
If you like what nmap does but find the command line too complicated, you can use the Network Utility.
links
Links and lynx are command line web browsers that provide full network access (subject to text) from the command line. This is very handy for browsing the web or checking the functioning of sites and browser compatibility. You can choose one of the packages, or you can install both at once.
brew install links
geoiplookup
Geoip provides location information by IP address. The package will be especially useful for system and network administrators, as well as other professionals.
brew install geoip
If you ever needed to find out the location of a specific IP, geoip will help you with this.
irssi
Enjoy chatting on IRC? Then irssi is for you, the best command line irc client.
brew install irssi
bash-completion
If you use the bash shell, you are probably already familiar with bash-completion, or will soon be familiar. This package significantly improves command completion. Zsh also does a pretty good job, but bash-completion makes bash a lot more useful.
brew install bash-completion
It's worth noting that if you've ever changed the shell in the Terminal program, you need bash to use bash-completion.
Watch
The watch command makes it easy to monitor various processes. For example, you can use watch to track disk usage, memory usage, etc. Updates will happen every couple of seconds. It's a great tool for administrators, but others will find it useful as well.
brew install watch