Like apt-get for Debian, yum for Red Hat Linux Operating Systems, there are couple of package manager for Mac. Homebrew, MacPorts and Fink The packages are build / developed on Darwin OS which is base for mac. This enables the packages to work also on mac.

So which one to choose ?

Personally, i have both Homebrew and MacPorts. I haven’t find any need to install Fink. But you can choose which one you can go with. The basic difference between brew and port i see is that, brew leverages most of the functionality from OSX so less time and space to setup. You don’t want to care about much and just want the stuff to work. All of its packages are depending mostly on existing Mac version port has a largest selection of packages to install. It will build every package on its own and doesn’t depend on OSx base. I would go with port unless i don’t find any specific package with it. Fink on the other hand is inspired by debians apt-get style and has precompiled packages. I haven’t tried it though.

Homebrew

Package manager for Mac.

https://brew.sh

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

Some frequently used commands

brew search <package>
brew info <imagemagick>
brew install <package>
brew --dry-run uninstall <package>
brew reinstall <imagemagick>
brew list # displays list of installed packages
brew leaves # displays formulas that are not dependent on other installed formulas

# Remove all the packages installed by brew
brew list -1 | xargs brew rm

# unlink the tool short cut and link again if the command is not found after installation
brew unlink imagemagick && brew link imagemagick 

# Displays brew local path
brew --prefix 

# uninstall the dependencies of the package you installed
brew deps terminator | egrep -v "openssl|gettext" | xargs brew uninstall

# List dependencies of the given formula 
brew deps osxfuse

MacPorts

Another package manager for Mac.

https://www.macports.org

Some frequently used commands

sudo port search <portname>
sudo port info <portname>
sudo port install <portname>

# Lists the ports installed with out dependencies. (which are not depended on other installed ports)
sudo port echo leaves

# List the installed ports including the dependencies
sudo port installed
port -d echo installed 
du -sh /opt/local/var/macports/software/* 

sudo port uninstall <portname> 
sudo port uninstall --follow-dependencies <portname> 

# Before pruning your leaves, you may also want to uninstall old versions of ports that are no longer “active”
sudo port uninstall inactive

# displays dependencies of the port
sudo port dependents perl5

# see how much size each port occupies
port space --units MB --total ghostscript
# more detailed info
port contents --size depof:ghostscript

# see list of python versions installed
port select --list python
sudo port select --set python python27

# while port echo leaves also list the one which doesn't have dependencies, this script gives all the ports. difference between these two lists will give which are mainly installed via port install command.
list1=$(port echo leaves | cut -d'@' -f1)
list2=$(port installed | cut -d'(' -f1 | cut -d'@' -f1 | grep -v "following ports" | xargs port dependents | grep "has no dependents")

For more commands see here. https://guide.macports.org/chunked/using.html

Some packages I installed

Installed via Macports

Tool	Description
encfs	EncFS is an encrypted pass-through filesystem using the FUSE kernel
sshfs	mounts filesystem on other remote system using ssh
sshpass	pass password for ssh protocol
pv	pipe viewer

Installed via Homebrew

Tool	Description
wget
watch
imagemagick	tools to manipulate images