Homebrew: How do you specify a version using brew cask?

user_1609929 0
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How do I specify a version number when installing something with brew cask install?

homebrew
3 Answers

For recent versions of Homebrew, Jethro' instructions below may not work work, because we will get an error like:

Invalid usage: Non-checksummed download of <FORMULA_NAME> formula file from an arbitrary URL is unsupported.

I found a workaround:

  1. Go to the Homebrew Cask search page: https://formulae.brew.sh/cask/
  2. Type and find the application you are looking for
  3. Click Cask code link
  4. On Github click History button
  5. Find the version you need by reading the commit messages and view the raw file. Confirm the version variable (normally on line 2) is the version you need.
  6. Click on the name of the commit, then three dots and select View file
  7. Right-click Raw button and Save Link As... to download the file locally
  8. When downloaded, go to download directory cd Downloads/
  9. Finally run brew install --cask <FORMULA_NAME>.rb
  10. Voilà

If you need some visual assistance check the screenshots here.

user_82804950

You can manually point brew at the ruby file for a specific version of a cask, using a git hash. This lets you control which version is installed.

For example:

  1. Find the cask .rb file on the homebrew-cask git repo that you want.

  2. Get the commit hash, eg cee7983cd95fc92fdc250fc509f2379cefe647fe in the example above.

    Git may give you instructions to view the file history locally - eg git clone https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask.git git log master -- Casks/CASK_NAME.rb

  3. Point brew at the file using the hash: brew cask install https://raw.githubusercontent.com/caskroom/homebrew-cask/cee7983cd95fc92fdc250fc509f2379cefe647fe/Casks/minikube.rb
user_16099290

The other answers are pretty heavy handed, an alternative is to use the homebrew/cask-versions tap which contains a list of the old (major) versions of casks.

To use them tap it with brew tap homebrew/cask-versions and then you can search for your cask again like brew search --cask yourformula and see if what you're looking for is there.

Or you can see the complete list of casks by clicking on Casks folder at https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask-versions .

user_510610
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