How can I run two isolated installations of Homebrew?

Question

I want to install and run two versions of Homebrew simultaneously on an Apple Silicon Mac: an ARM64 version, and an Intel version running under Rosetta 2.

I know I can prepend any brew command with arch --x86_64 to emulate Intel for that command, but this can lead to conflicts for formulas whose dependencies you already have built for ARM64. For example:

Error: gnupg dependencies not built for the x86_64 CPU architecture:
  pkg-config was built for arm64
  gettext was built for arm64
  readline was built for arm64
  openssl@1.1 was built for arm64

How can I install and run two separate, isolated versions of Homebrew (one for native ARM64 and one for emulated Intel), keeping each of their installed formulae and dependencies separate?

Jacob Ford · Accepted Answer · 2022-11-08T16:58:37.900

105

Install Homebrew natively on Apple Silicon (will install to /opt/homebrew by default):

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

Install Intel-emulated Homebrew (will install to /usr/local by default):
```
arch --x86_64 /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
```
If you haven't yet installed Rosetta 2, you'll need to run softwareupdate --install-rosetta first.
Create an alias for Intel homebrew. I'm calling mine brow because O for old. But hey you do your own thing.

In ~/.zshrc (or your shell's equivalent) add:
```
alias brow='arch --x86_64 /usr/local/Homebrew/bin/brew'
```
Add ARM Homebrew to your PATH.

In ~/.zshrc (or your shell's equivalent) add:
```
# Homebrew on Apple Silicon
path=('/opt/homebrew/bin' $path)
export PATH
```
If you're still on bash it'd be PATH=/opt/homebrew/bin:$PATH
Confirm

which brew should return /opt/homebrew/bin/brew

brew --prefix should return /opt/homebrew

which brow should return brow: aliased to arch --x86_64 /usr/local/Homebrew/bin/brew

brow --prefix should return /usr/local

If you have the same command installed in both Homebrews, it'll default to Apple Silicon (/opt/homebrew/) since we prepended that one in our PATH. To override, run the command with its full path (/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl), or override your PATH for one command (PATH=/usr/local/bin youtube-dl).

I also created another handy alias in .zshrc (alias ib='PATH=/usr/local/bin') so I can prepend any Homebrew-installed command with ib to force using the Intel version of that command:

~ ▶ which youtube-dl
/opt/homebrew/bin/youtube-dl
~ ▶ ib which youtube-dl
/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl

If you prefer Intel to be the default brew, add /opt/homebrew/bin to the end of your PATH instead of the beginning.

edited Nov 08 '22 at 16:58

answered Nov 22 '20 at 05:43

Jacob Ford

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for some reason the `arch` command does not work for me ... :( ```bash $ /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)" Password: Homebrew is not (yet) supported on ARM processors! [...] ``` i tried about everything i could find, but I start thinking I'm the only one. help? maybe? – flypenguin Dec 10 '20 at 21:49
1

@flypenguin It looks like you're actually not using the `arch` command, which is why Homebrew is refusing to install. Prepend what you pasted above with `arch --x86_64`. – Jacob Ford Jan 04 '21 at 01:53
This is a neat solution, but I have problems using oh-my-zsh plugins: they use `brew --prefix` to check if the corresponding package is installed, and at that point the `PATH` doesn't contain the 'native Homebrew' bin, so it uses `/usr/local/bin` which is the Rosetta based. Any suggestion how to resolve this? – Katona Aug 25 '21 at 09:24
1

vscode has apple silicon and intel builds. If you use the intel build, the integrated terminal with be i386. – Devin Rhode Feb 15 '22 at 18:44
Love ya brow, but why it's "if you are still on bash"? – Ron Wang Mar 29 '22 at 23:17
1

@RonWang The macOS default terminal is now `zsh`. – Jacob Ford Mar 31 '22 at 11:25
Didn't work for me. When I would switch to intel it would say "command arch not found" or something. – Sam Jun 07 '23 at 03:29
Amazing answer, wow – Devender Goyal Jul 10 '23 at 06:53

score 24 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 28 '21 at 20:59

24

Install Native Homebrew

❯ arch --arm64 zsh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"

all Homebrew related stuffs are in /opt/homebrew.

Install Rosetta Homebrew

❯ arch --x86_64 zsh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"

all Homebrew related stuffs are in /usr/local.

Configuring ~/.zshrc to use Brew defaultly based on arch,

# Multiple Homebrews on Apple Silicon
if [ "$(arch)" = "arm64" ]; then
    eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"
    export PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/python@3.8/bin:$PATH"
    # export LDFLAGS="-L/opt/homebrew/opt/python@3.8/lib" # For compilers to find python@3.8
else
    eval "$(/usr/local/bin/brew shellenv)"
    export PATH="/usr/local/opt/python@3.7/bin:$PATH"
    export PATH="/usr/local/opt/python@3.9/bin:$PATH"
    # export LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/opt/python@3.7/lib" # For compilers to find python@3.7
fi

Test

❯ arch
arm64
❯ which brew
/opt/homebrew/bin/brew
❯ arch -x86_64 zsh
❯ arch
i386
❯ which brew
/usr/local/bin/brew
# set alias as you like
❯ rzsh='arch -x86_64 zsh'

edited Dec 28 '21 at 20:59

huyz

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answered Jul 19 '21 at 15:37

liviaerxin

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6
13

Ooh, nice. Note that this uses the appropriate `brew` based on your _current_ arch (great for cross-architecture scripting), but doesn’t give you two different commands to type from _within_ ARM to choose which `brew` you want to use. – Jacob Ford Jul 19 '21 at 15:40
Awesome, thank you! How does the installer know to put the arm installation in /opt/homebrew/ and the intel installation in /usr/local/? – jtlz2 Mar 15 '22 at 08:50
Error: `bash is required to interpret this script` – jtlz2 Mar 15 '22 at 08:57
Also: Why 3.8 on arm and 3.7, 3.9 on intel? – jtlz2 Mar 15 '22 at 08:59
But anyway, this doesn't work for me - both installations point to the same place! – jtlz2 Mar 15 '22 at 09:01
Yeah, the homebrew installer knows the current arch environment then put itself in `/opt/homebrew/` for `arm` and `/usr/local/` for `x86`. – liviaerxin Mar 18 '22 at 04:48
In addition, I install py 3.8 in `arm` and install py 3.7, 3.9 in `x86` all by `brew`. Then you can find that the py 3.8 is universal/arm built and py 3.7, 3.9 are x86 built. So you need to set up respective `PATH` for matching py in the different arch. – liviaerxin Mar 18 '22 at 05:02
Please check [https://docs.brew.sh/Installation](https://docs.brew.sh/Installation) to find the detailed FAQ. – liviaerxin Mar 18 '22 at 05:08

How can I run two isolated installations of Homebrew?

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