Homebrew: Releases, patches & end-of-life
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Lifecycle guide for Homebrew from Max Howell

All releases, patches, maintenance and support periods at a glance

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📅 Last update on 2026-03-07

What is Homebrew?

Automate product release and end-of-life managementHomebrew is a popular free and open-source software package management system designed specifically for Apple"s macOS and Linux. It allows users to easily install, update, and manage command-line tools and other applications that are not available in the App Store. Homebrew simplifies the process of getting essential developer tools and utilities by providing a single command, brewinstall<package>, to fetch and compile them from source or download pre-built binaries. Essentially, it acts as a "missing package manager" that significantly enhances the functionality and ease of use of the terminal for developers and power users.
 

The entire lifecycle of Homebrew

The following figure shows you the visualised product life cycle of Homebrew. You can see all releases with the latest patch version, the long-term support characteristics (orange flag in the green circle, the periods for version provision, maintenance and support.
Homebrew (Max Howell) release, version and end-of-life information
XHomebrew (Max Howell) release, version and end-of-life information
Figure: Release, patch and end-of-life cycle of product Homebrew (Max Howell)
 

Facts and figures about Homebrew

Product
Homebrew
Vendor
Max Howell
Latest version
5.0.16
Number of releases
36
Number of versions
483
Number of unstable versions
0
Number of versions affected by CVE
-
Licence
BSD 2-Clause Simplified License
 
 

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Lukas Böttcher
Lukas Böttcher
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