Stage 1 · Lesson 3 of 8

Homebrew, the Mac package manager

is a for the Mac: a tool that installs other software for you from the terminal. brew install git jq installs command-line tools, and brew install --cask visual-studio-code installs a desktop app. On Macs it puts everything in /opt/homebrew; on Intel Macs it uses /usr/local.

At the end, the installer asks you to add a line to your . That line puts brew on your PATH, the list of folders your shell searches for commands. Keep Homebrew healthy with brew update, brew upgrade and brew doctor.

With one package manager, every tool comes from one place and can be upgraded or removed cleanly.

Common trapmixing installers: the same tool from Homebrew, a downloaded package and a , and never knowing which one runs.

A question to check yourself, an AI practice session and 2 cheat sheet entries come when you add the roadmap to your account. Add it

Resources for this stage

Start with

CourseFree
The Missing Semester of Your CS Education
MIT · Beginner
The first lecture introduces the shell with exercises that work in the macOS terminal

Keep handy

Homebrew
The install command and documentation for the package manager you will use for every tool
Visual Studio Code
The editor used through this roadmap, with official set-up guides for each operating system

Also worth your time

roadmap.sh: LinuxGo deeper
A map of the whole Linux topic, to see how much there is beyond this stage