Mac installer packages do not upgrade Homebrew from older versions

[aysiu]

brew doctor output

brew doctor
Your system is ready to brew.

N/A. This is about the install/upgrade of Brew itself

Verification

• My "brew doctor output" above says Your system is ready to brew. and am still able to reproduce my issue.
• I ran brew update twice and am still able to reproduce my issue.
• This issue's title and/or description do not reference a single formula e.g. brew install wget. If they do, open an issue at https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/issues/new/choose instead.

brew config output

brew config
HOMEBREW_VERSION: 4.4.20
ORIGIN: https://github.com/Homebrew/brew
HEAD: 47ef1a3b0b742a78be35c016df6a0279d6035ebb
Last commit: 7 days ago
Branch: master
Core tap JSON: 03 Feb 16:31 UTC
Core cask tap JSON: 03 Feb 16:31 UTC
HOMEBREW_PREFIX: /opt/homebrew
HOMEBREW_CASK_OPTS: []
HOMEBREW_MAKE_JOBS: 8
Homebrew Ruby: 3.3.7 => /opt/homebrew/Library/Homebrew/vendor/portable-ruby/3.3.7/bin/ruby
CPU: octa-core 64-bit arm_ibiza
Clang: 16.0.0 build 1600
Git: 2.39.5 => /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin/git
Curl: 8.7.1 => /usr/bin/curl
macOS: 15.2-arm64
CLT: 16.2.0.0.1.1733547573
Xcode: N/A
Rosetta 2: false

N/A

This is about the install/upgrade of Brew itself

What were you trying to do (and why)?

Upgrade brew via the installer, so we can keep it up to date

What happened (include all command output)?

Installing a new version of brew via the Mac installers at https://github.com/Homebrew/brew/releases doesn't upgrade the installed version of brew

What did you expect to happen?

If there's an older version of brew installed via an older installer, and you install brew via a newer installer, the installed brew version should be on the newer version.

Step-by-step reproduction instructions (by running brew commands)

Installed 4.4.18:

sudo installer -pkg ~/Downloads/Homebrew-4.4.18.pkg -target /
installer: Package name is Homebrew
installer: Upgrading at base path /
installer: The upgrade was successful.

Brew version is then 4.4.18:

/opt/homebrew/bin/brew --version
Homebrew 4.4.18

Installed 4.4.20:

 sudo installer -pkg ~/Downloads/Homebrew-4.4.20.pkg -target /
installer: Package name is Homebrew
installer: Upgrading at base path /
installer: The upgrade was successful.

Brew version is still 4.4.18:

/opt/homebrew/bin/brew --version                             
Homebrew 4.4.18

Even if you delete the `brew` binary and then reinstall, it's still the old version:

sudo rm /opt/homebrew/bin/brew


sudo installer -pkg ~/Downloads/Homebrew-4.4.20.pkg -target /
installer: Package name is Homebrew
installer: Upgrading at base path /
installer: The upgrade was successful.


/opt/homebrew/bin/brew --version                     
Homebrew 4.4.18

It's only if you blow out the entire subdir and then install the new version that the new version gets recognized as being installed:

sudo rm -rf /opt/homebrew 


sudo installer -pkg ~/Downloads/Homebrew-4.4.20.pkg -target /
installer: Package name is Homebrew
installer: Upgrading at base path /
installer: The upgrade was successful.


/opt/homebrew/bin/brew --version                 
Homebrew 4.4.20

The installer package should have `brew --version` report back the version that the installer installed.

[itsmikesharescode]

experience the same hard stuck at upgrade/update is there other way?

[gromgit]

experience the same hard stuck at upgrade/update is there other way?

Is brew update not working for you?

[aysiu]

A newer .pkg should upgrade an older .pkg's installation.

[carlocab]

It might just be the cached version. Try doing

rm -rf "$(brew --repo)/.git/describe-cache"

after updating to make sure the version output isn't stale.

[itsmikesharescode]

experience the same hard stuck at upgrade/update is there other way?

Is brew update not working for you?

Yes, is there a workaround? I was trying to run brew upgrade supabase but it kept failing, so I decided to reinstall it. Now I'm stuck with a connection update error even though my internet is working at peak speed.

[gromgit]

Yes, is there a workaround?

Well, you could manually run a git pull on each Homebrew repo directory, but a more useful diagnosis would require that you reveal the exact (error) output of brew update (and brew upgrade supabase, since you're having problems with that too)..

[itsmikesharescode]

Yes, is there a workaround?

Well, you could manually run a git pull on each Homebrew repo directory, but a more useful diagnosis would require that you reveal the exact (error) output of brew update (and brew upgrade supabase, since you're having problems with that too)..

never mind it works now i just clear the cache carlocab said thanks.