- Install Softwares In Terminal Macos Linux
- Install Softwares In Terminal Macos Installer
- Macos Terminal Command List
- Macos Terminal Emulator
- Macos Terminal Color
- Macos Terminal Profiles
What’s Node.js® and NPM?
Node.js® is a JavaScript-based environment which you can use to create web-servers and networked applications. You can also use it to perform helpful tasks on your computer such as concatenating and minifying JavaScript files and compiling Sass files into CSS.
When buying a new MacOS computer, or reformatting an existing one, the most tedious task you need to do is install all of your software apps from scratch. First you have to remember each one and secondly, visiting each app’s website, downloading the app, and installing it takes forever.
NPM is a “package manager” that makes installing Node “packages” fast and easy. A package, also called a module, is just a code library that extends Node by adding useful features. For example, the “request” module simplifies the process of making HTTP requests so you can easily get web resources from other sites.
- Installing applications on macOS and OS X computers is easy to do when deploying the apps as packages through the Terminal using the Installer command for quiet deployments across your network.
- When it’s time to install a new version of macOS or download a new update, nearly everyone turns to the Mac App Store to start the process. While the App Store makes OS installations easy.
- Find Install macOS Mojave then right-click on it, select Show Package Contents. In this step, select Contents, select Resources. Here you will find createinstallmedia file. Select the createinstallmedia file and then drag it to the Terminal window. In the Terminal Window, type –volume followed by a space.
- Paste that in a macOS Terminal or Linux shell prompt. Homebrew complements macOS (or your Linux system). Install your RubyGems with gem and their dependencies with brew. “To install, drag this icon” no more. Homebrew Cask installs macOS apps, fonts and plugins and other non-open source software.
NPM is installed when you install Node.js®
Although there is a Mac installer program on the Node website, we recommend using Homebrew to install and update Node.
Prerequisites
- You should have some familiarity with the Mac Terminal application since you’ll need to use it to install and test Node and NPM. You’ll also need the Terminal to use Node.js and NPM. The Terminal application is located in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder.
- Dependencies. Although you can install Node in other ways, we recommend using Homebrew. Homebrew lets you avoid possible security problems associated with using the
sudo
command to install software like Node and Node modules.- Install Homebrew. Follow the steps on the How to Install Homebrew on a Mac instruction guide to install Homebrew.
Installation Overview
Installing Node.js® and NPM is pretty straightforward using Homebrew. Homebrew handles downloading, unpacking and installing Node and NPM on your system. The whole process (after you have Homebrew installed) should only take you a few minutes.
Installation Steps
- Open the Terminal app and type
brew update
. This updates Homebrew with a list of the latest version of Node. - **Type
brew install node
. - Sit back and wait. Homebrew has to download some files and install them. But that’s it.
Test it!
Make sure you have Node and NPM installed by running simple commands to see what version of each is installed:
- Test Node. To see if Node is installed, type
node -v
in Terminal. This should print the version number so you’ll see something like thisv0.10.31
. - Test NPM. To see if NPM is installed, type
npm -v
in Terminal. This should print the version number so you’ll see something like this1.4.27
How to Update Node and NPM
New versions of Node and NPM come out frequently. You can use Homebrew to update the software it installs.
- Make sure Homebrew has the latest version of the Node package. In Terminal type
brew update
- Upgrade Node:
brew upgrade node
Install Softwares In Terminal Macos Linux
How to Uninstall Node and NPM
You can use Homebrew to uninstall packages that it installed:
brew uninstall node
Tutorial
Introduction
The command line interface is a non-graphical way to interact with your computer. Instead of clicking buttons with your mouse, you’ll type commands as text and receive text-based feedback. The command line, also known as a shell, lets you automate many tasks you do on your computer daily, and is an essential tool for software developers.
While the command line interface on macOS has a lot of the functionality you’d find in Linux and other Unix systems, it does not ship with a good package manager. A package manager is a collection of software tools that work to automate software installations, configurations, and upgrades. Package managers keep the software they install in a central location and can maintain all software packages on the system in formats that are commonly used.
Homebrew is a package manager for macOS which lets you install free and open-source software using your terminal. You’ll use Homebrew to install developer tools like Python, Ruby, Node.js, and more.
In this tutorial you’ll install and use Homebrew on your Mac.
Prerequisites
You will need a macOS computer running High Sierra or higher with administrative access and an internet connection.
Step 1 — Using the macOS Terminal
To access the command line interface on your Mac, you’ll use the Terminal application provided by macOS. Like any other application, you can find it by going into Finder, navigating to the Applications
folder, and then into the Utilities
folder. From here, double-click the Terminal application to open it up. Alternatively, you can use Spotlight by holding down the COMMAND
key and pressing SPACE
to find Terminal by typing it out in the box that appears.
To get more comfortable using the command line, take a look at An Introduction to the Linux Terminal. The command line interface on macOS is very similar, and the concepts in that tutorial are directly applicable.
Now that you have the Terminal running, let’s install some additional tools that Homebrew needs.
Step 2 — Installing Xcode’s Command Line Tools
Xcode is an integrated development environment (IDE) that is comprised of software development tools for macOS. You won’t need Xcode to use Homebrew, but some of the software and components you’ll want to install will rely on Xcode’s Command Line Tools package.
Execute the following command in the Terminal to download and install these components:
You’ll be prompted to start the installation, and then prompted again to accept a software license. Then the tools will download and install automatically.
You can now install Homebrew.
Step 3 — Installing and Setting Up Homebrew
To install Homebrew, you’ll download an installation script and then execute the script.
Install Softwares In Terminal Macos Installer
First, download the script to your local machine by typing the following command in your Terminal window:
The command uses curl
to download the Homebrew installation script from Homebrew’s Git repository on GitHub.
Let’s walk through the flags that are associated with the curl
command:
- The -
f
or--fail
flag tells the Terminal window to give no HTML document output on server errors. - The
-s
or--silent
flag mutescurl
so that it does not show the progress meter, and combined with the-S
or--show-error
flag it will ensure thatcurl
shows an error message if it fails. - The
-L
or--location
flag will tellcurl
to handle redirects. If the server reports that the requested page has moved to a different location, it’ll automatically execute the request again using the new location. - The
-o
switch specifies a local filename for the file.
Before running a script you’ve download from the Internet, you should review its contents so you know what the script will do. Use the less
command to look at the installation script:
Once you’re comfortable with the contents of the script, execute the script with the bash
command:
The installation script will explain what it will do and will prompt you to confirm that you want to do it. This lets you know exactly what Homebrew is going to do to your system before you let it proceed. It also ensures you have the prerequisites in place before it continues.
You’ll be prompted to enter your password during the process. However, when you type your password, your keystrokes will not display in the Terminal window. This is a security measure and is something you’ll see often when prompted for passwords on the command line. Even though you don’t see them, your keystrokes are being recorded by the system, so press the RETURN
key once you’ve entered your password.
Press the letter y
for “yes” whenever you are prompted to confirm the installation.
Once the installation process is complete, you will want to put the directory Homebrew uses to store its executables at the front of the PATH
environment variable. This ensures that Homebrew installations will be called over the tools that macOS includes.
The file you’ll modify depends on which shell you’re using. If you’re using Bash, you’ll use the file ~/.bash_profile
:
However, if you’re using ZSH, you’ll open the file ~/.zshrc
.
Once the file opens up in the Terminal window, add the following lines to the end of the file:
The first line is a comment that will help you remember what this does if you open this file in the future.
To save your changes, hold down the CTRL
key and the letter O
, and when prompted, press the RETURN
key. Then exit the editor by holding the CTRL
key and pressing X
. This will return you to your Terminal prompt.
To activate these changes, close and reopen your Terminal app. Alternatively, use the source
command to load the file you modified.
If you modified .bash_profile
, execute this command:
If you modified .zshrc
, execute this command:
Once you have done this, the changes you have made to the PATH
environment variable will take effect. They’ll be set correctly when you log in again in the future, as the configuration file for your shell is executed automatically when you open the Terminal app.
Now let’s verify that Homebrew is set up correctly. Execute this command:
If no updates are required at this time, you’ll see this in your Terminal:
Otherwise, you may get a warning to run another command such as brew update
to ensure that your installation of Homebrew is up to date. Follow any on-screen instructions to fix your environment before moving on.
Step 4 — Installing, Upgrading, and Removing Packages
Now that Homebrew is installed, use it to download a package. The tree
command lets you see a graphical directory tree and is available via Homebrew.
Install tree
with the brew install
command:
Homebrew will update its list of packages and then download and install the tree
command:
Homebrew installs files to /usr/local
by default, so they won’t interfere with future macOS updates. Verify that tree
is installed by displaying the command’s location with the which
command:
The output shows that tree
is located in /usr/local/bin
:
Run the tree
command to see the version:
The version prints to the screen, indicating it’s installed:
Occasionally, you’ll want to upgrade an existing package. Use the brew upgrade
command, followed by the package name:
You can run brew upgrade
with no additional arguments to upgrade all programs and packages Homebrew manages.
When you install a new version, Homebrew keeps the older version around. After a while, you might want to reclaim disk space by removing these older copies. Run brew cleanup
to remove all old versions of your Homebrew-managed software.
To remove a package you’re no longer using, use brew uninstall
. To uninstall the tree
command, execute this command:
The output shows that the package was removed:
You can use Homebrew to install desktop applications too.
Step 5 — Installing Desktop Applications
You’re not restricted to using Homebrew for command-line tools. Homebrew Cask lets you install desktop applications. This feature is included with Homebrew, so there’s nothing additional to install.
To use Homebrew to install Visual Studio Code, execute the following command:
The application will install:
You’ll find the application in your Applications
folder, just as if you’d installed it manually.
To remove it, use brew cask uninstall
:
Homebrew will remove the installed software:
It performs a backup first in case the removal fails, but once the program is fully uninstalled, the backup is removed as well.
Step 6 — Uninstalling Homebrew
Macos Terminal Command List
If you no longer need Homebrew, you can use its uninstall script.
Download the uninstall script with curl
:
As always, review the contents of the script with the less
command to verify the script’s contents:
Once you’ve verified the script, execute the script with the --help
flag to see the various options you can use:
The options display on the screen:
Use the -d
flag to see what the script will do:
The script will list everything it will delete:
When you’re ready to remove everything, execute the script without any flags:
This removes Homebrew and any programs you’ve installed with it.
Macos Terminal Emulator
Conclusion
Macos Terminal Color
In this tutorial you installed and used Homebrew on your Mac. You can now use Homebrew to install command line tools, programming languages, and other utilities you’ll need for software development.
Macos Terminal Profiles
Homebrew has many packages you can install. Visit the official list to search for your favorite programs.