Homebrew Uninstall And Reinstall Guide For Mac Mini M4

1. Completely Uninstall Homebrew

1.1 Run the official uninstall script

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/uninstall.sh)"

Follow the prompts by typing y and entering your administrator password.

1.2 Manually remove residual files

sudo rm -rf /opt/homebrew
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/Homebrew
rm -rf ~/Library/Logs/Homebrew

1.3 Remove environment variables from your shell configuration

Edit ~/.zprofile or ~/.zshrc and delete the following line:

eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"

You can use the following command to open the file:

open ~/.zprofile

1.4 Verify if Homebrew was successfully uninstalled

brew

If it says command not found, the uninstallation is complete.

2. Reinstall Homebrew

2.1 Installation command

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

This will automatically install the Xcode Command Line Tools (if not already installed).

2.2 Configure environment variables (must-do step)

echo 'eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"' >> ~/.zprofile
eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"

2.3 Verify successful installation

brew doctor

If it says “Your system is ready to brew.”, the installation was successful.