A handy script to update brew packages

I’m not one to roll with outdated packages. Much like the continuous deployment philosophy, I like to update often so I don’t end up updating half of my installed packages at one time and be left with a broken mess that I can’t easily track down the culprit for.

To facilitate this, I just wrote a quick bash script. Run it when it’s convenient or throw it in cron.

#!/bin/bash

# -x = Display the commands that are being executed.
# -e = Exit the script on the first error. 
set -ex

# Update the local index of known packages.
brew update

# Upgrade installed packages that are out of date.
brew upgrade

# A brew upgrade leaves the old packages installed and it can take up a lot of space.
# This removes old versions.
brew cleanup

# Let brew inspect your setup and warn you of any weirdness.
brew doctor

As you can see, nothing fancy here. I’ve never had a reason to so I hope you shouldn’t either. Having a script handy make upgrading a no-brainer and I can save my fingers!