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https://github.com/DomT4/homebrew-autoupdate

:tropical_drink: An easy, convenient way to automatically update Homebrew.
https://github.com/DomT4/homebrew-autoupdate

homebrew homebrew-autoupdate ruby

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:tropical_drink: An easy, convenient way to automatically update Homebrew.

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# Homebrew Autoupdate



An easy, convenient way to automatically update Homebrew.



This script will run `brew update` in the background once every 24 hours (by

default) until explicitly told to stop, utilising `launchd`.



`brew upgrade` and `brew cleanup` can also be handled automatically, but

are optional flags.



Notifications are enabled by default using a new, code-signed, universal AppleScript applet.



![A comic highlighting humanity's habit of skipping important updates](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/update.png)



## Installing this command



Just `brew tap domt4/autoupdate`.



Now run `brew autoupdate start [interval] [options]` to enable autoupdate.



## Example



`brew autoupdate start 43200 --upgrade --cleanup --immediate --sudo`



This will upgrade all your casks and formulae every 12 hours and on every system boot. 


If a sudo password is required for an upgrade, a GUI to enter your password will be displayed. 


Also, it will clean up every old version and left-over files.



Casks that have built-in auto-updates enabled by default will not be upgraded.



## Usage



```shell

Usage: brew autoupdate subcommand [interval] [options]



An easy, convenient way to automatically update Homebrew.



This script will run brew update in the background once every 24 hours (by

default) until explicitly told to stop, utilising launchd.



brew autoupdate start [interval] [options]:

    Start autoupdating either once every interval hours or once every 24

hours. Please note the interval has to be passed in seconds, so 12 hours would

be brew autoupdate start 43200. If you want to start the autoupdate

immediately and on system boot, pass --immediate. Pass --upgrade or

--cleanup to automatically run brew upgrade and/or brew cleanup

respectively.



brew autoupdate stop:

    Stop autoupdating, but retain plist and logs.



brew autoupdate delete:

    Cancel the autoupdate, delete the plist and logs.



brew autoupdate status:

    Print the current status of this tool.



brew autoupdate version:

    Output this tool's current version, and a short changelog.



      --upgrade                    Automatically upgrade your installed

                                   formulae. If the Caskroom exists locally then

                                   casks will be upgraded as well. Must be

                                   passed with start.

      --greedy                     Upgrade casks with --greedy (include

                                   auto-updating casks). Must be passed with

                                   start.

      --cleanup                    Automatically clean Homebrew's cache and

                                   logs. Must be passed with start.

      --enable-notification        Notifications are enabled by default on macOS

                                   Catalina and newer. This flag is no longer

                                   required and can be safely dropped.

      --immediate                  Starts the autoupdate command immediately and

                                   on system boot, instead of waiting for one

                                   interval (24 hours by default) to pass first.

                                   Must be passed with start.

      --sudo                       If a cask requires sudo, autoupdate will

                                   open a GUI to ask for the password. Requires

                                   https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/pinentry-mac

                                   to be installed.

  -d, --debug                      Display any debugging information.

  -q, --quiet                      Make some output more quiet.

  -v, --verbose                    Make some output more verbose.

  -h, --help                       Show this message.

```



**Logs of the performed operations can be found at:** `~/Library/Logs/com.github.domt4.homebrew-autoupdate`



## This vs `brew`'s built-in autoupdate mechanism



This command mostly exists to ensure Homebrew is updated regardless of whether

you invoke `brew` or not, which is the primary difference from the autoupdate

mechanism built into `brew`, the latter requiring a user to explicitly run

any of `brew install`, `brew tap` or `brew upgrade`.



If you run `brew` commands regularly yourself, you may wish to consider using

the built-in autoupdate mechanism, which can be instructed to autoupdate less

often, or disabled entirely. If you wish to update every 24 hours using the

built-in autoupdate mechanism set this in your environment:



```bash

export HOMEBREW_AUTO_UPDATE_SECS="86400"

```



or if you wish to disable the built-in autoupdate mechanism entirely:



```bash

export HOMEBREW_NO_AUTO_UPDATE="1"

```



Please note that Homebrew slightly frowns upon people disabling the built-in

autoupdate mechanism.



## TO-DO (PRs Welcome)



## History



This tap was created by [DomT4](https://github.com/DomT4) in April 2015 to

address a personal desire for a background updater, before being moved to

the Homebrew organisation in April 2021 to become an official part of the

project after gaining somewhat widespread usage, something I'm both surprised

by, but also very appreciative of people finding a small tool I wrote so

useful & contributing their own ideas and time towards.



It was in late 2023 moved back to DomT4's ownership to reduce the burden on

the wider Homebrew leadership team in terms of maintenance/support requests.



## License



Code is under the [BSD 2 Clause (NetBSD) license](https://github.com/DomT4/homebrew-autoupdate/blob/master/LICENSE.txt).