7 Hot HomeBrew Tools for Mac That Feel Like Superpowers

No-UI tools for minimalist Mac users

All commands listed below are to be used in Terminal.

#1. Cask

Cask is the App Store of HomeBrew. It makes installing, updating, and even uninstalling popular apps as easy as ABC — by simple commands!

It’s only after I discovered Cask, I escaped the fusses of:

• dragging app icons into Applications to install, (you know it)
• updating apps individually,
• the weary process of uninstalling apps.

It made my life a lot easier. And after such a blithe, I don’t feel like using App Store anymore.

I’m not exaggerating.

• Install Cask tool: brew install cask
• Search for an app (sample): brew search skype
• Install an app: brew install skype
• Un/Reinstall an app: brew un/reinstall skype
• Update all apps: brew upgrade
• View all installed apps: brew list --casks

Here’s the list of all apps you can install via Cask:

#2. tmux

tmux expands to Terminal Multiplexer.

Similar to a multiplex with several separate screens, tmux splits your Terminal into multiple separate, and independent Terminals — enabling you to run several sessions concurrently.

How cool! Never knew this could be possible.

• Install tmux: brew install tmux
• Start tmux: tmux
• *Split a session vertically: ⌃ + b %
• *Split a session horizontally: ⌃ + b “
• Switch to left/right/top/bottom pane: ⌃ + b ←/ →/↑/↓

Note, you can’t switch panes using mouse.

I tried it. Nadda.

*These might be confusing, so giving better explanation.

• ⌃ + b % means ⌃ + b, wait, shift + 5
• ⌃ + b " means ⌃ + b, wait, shift + "

#3. tldr 📄

As you know, every command and HomeBrew tool comes with a man page.

It’s a highly descriptive page that explains everything a tool could do — often consisting of hundreds of lines.

The description could be too complex to read, especially for newbie folks who come to explore a tool’s basic functionality.

To help such people, an online community started tldr — a tool that simplifies man pages and offers practical examples for better eurekas.

For example:

The man page of tmux consists of over 5600 lines. So HUGE.

Now, see its tldr →

— Just 16 lines explaining its basic capabilities. How awesome! You NEED to use this.

• Install tldr: brew install tldr
• View tldr of a tool (sample): tldr tmux
• View its man page: man tmux

Tldr: Forget man, use tldr.

#4. Pandoc 📑

Pandoc is a universal doc format converter that beats other similar apps in lightweight-ness — coz it’s not an app, it’s a HomeBrew tool.

It supports conversion across dozens of doc formats, ranging from

• most popular — .doc, .pdf, .csv, .epub to
• lesser-used — .ipynb, .odt, .tsv

with output quality on par with that of popular apps.

• Install Pandoc: brew install pandoc
• List all supported in/output formats: pandoc --list-in/output-formats
• Convert file (sample): pandoc -o output.pdf [DRAG INPUT FILE HERE]

#5. Calc 🧮

Calc is a powerful UI-less calculator that provides quick answers to complex math problems.

• Install Calc: brew install calc
• Start Calc: calc
• Quit Calc: quit
• List all built-in functions: help builtin

After starting Calc, here are some quick things you can try:

• calculate simple math expressions: 3 * (4 + 1)
• use popular arithmetic operators and built-in functions: 3 * 19^43 — 1 , sin(1) ,
• complex numbers: (2+3i) * (4-3i)
• variables:

curds = 15
whey = 7 + 2 * curds
whey

• and functions:

define sc(a,b) = a^3 + b^3
sc(31, 61)

Bonus feature

Say you’d like to calculate 3 + 4 (one-off). You don’t need to start Calc to do that — as starting and quitting Calc takes a bit of time.

Instead, use calc 3+4 . This will give out the answer without starting Calc.

#6. aria2 ⬇️

aria2 is a lightweight download manager that downloads a linked file when fed with its URL.

Best part, it can even resume incomplete downloads that might’ve got interrupted by network issues or accidental shut-downs.

• Install aria2: brew install aria2
• Download a file: aria2c [url] (Observe the extra ‘c’)
• Resume an interrupted download: aria2c -c [url]

Supported URLs: Direct weblinks, FTP links, torrents, torrent magnet urls, metalinks etc.

Bonus feature:

If you have multiple files to download, paste their urls into a text file and feed it to aria2 in the place of URL.

#7. rar 🗜️

Ever heard about the app WinRAR? I know you did.

rar is its cmd-line version that (obviously) lacks a UI but is equally effective in compressing and extracting .rar files.

• Install rar: brew install rar
• *Compress file/s: rar a archive.rar [DRAG FILE1 HERE] [DRAG FILE2 HERE] ...
• Compress file/s with password: rar a -pPassword archive.rar [DRAG FILE1 HERE] ...
• Extract a rar: unrar x [DRAG RAR HERE]

*Note, the resulting .rar files will be stored in Home folder. To access, open Finder and use ⇧ + ⌘ + H.

For more a‘macOS’zing terminal commands, read these.

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