🍻 Better Brew

A faster, smarter Homebrew experience with parallel package operations, intelligent concurrency control, and real-time progress tracking.

Why Better Brew?

Homebrew's default commands process packages sequentially, which can be slow when managing multiple packages. Better Brew (bbrew) speeds this up by:

• Parallel Operations: Downloads and installs packages concurrently
• Smart Concurrency: Limits concurrent operations to prevent CPU overload
• Visual Feedback: Real-time progress bars with ETA for all operations

Features

✨ Parallel Package Operations - Install, upgrade, and reinstall multiple packages simultaneously ⚡ Concurrency Control - Intelligent limiting (max 4 concurrent ops) prevents system slowdown 📊 Progress Tracking - Beautiful progress bars with elapsed time and ETA 🎯 Drop-in Replacement - Use bbrew instead of brew for faster operations 🔒 Safe & Reliable - Individual package failures don't stop the entire operation

Installation

cargo install better_brew

Usage

Update Homebrew

bbrew update

Updates Homebrew and package definitions.

Upgrade All Outdated Packages

bbrew upgrade

This will:

1. Update package definitions
2. Check for outdated packages
3. Fetch all packages in parallel with progress tracking
4. Install the upgrades

Install Packages in Parallel

bbrew install wget curl jq ripgrep fd bat

Installs multiple packages concurrently with real-time progress.

Reinstall Packages

# Reinstall specific packages
bbrew reinstall node python rust

# Reinstall ALL installed packages (useful for troubleshooting)
bbrew reinstall --all

Example Output

=== Better Brew Install ===

Installing 4 package(s): wget, curl, jq, ripgrep

Installing packages with 4 concurrent operations...
✓ Installed: wget
✓ Installed: curl
🔄 [00:00:15] [####>-----] 3/4 (00:00:05) Installing ripgrep
✓ Installed: jq

✓ Successfully installed 4 package(s)

✓ Install complete!

Requirements

• macOS or Linux
• Homebrew installed and in PATH
• Rust 1.70+ (for building from source)

How it works

Traditional Sequential Approach

brew install pkg1 → brew install pkg2 → brew install pkg3 → brew install pkg4
Total time: Sum of all operations

Better Brew Parallel Approach (v0.3.0)

brew install pkg1 ┐
brew install pkg2 ├─→ (max 4 concurrent)
brew install pkg3 │   + progress tracking
brew install pkg4 ┘

Total time: ~Longest operation × (total_packages ÷ 4)

Key Features:

• Concurrency Limiting: Maximum 4 concurrent operations prevents CPU overload
• Progress Tracking: Real-time progress bars show what's happening
• Smart Resource Management: Balances speed with system stability

This significantly reduces wait time when managing multiple packages while keeping your system responsive.

Version History

v0.3.0 (Latest)

• ✨ Added real-time progress bars with ETA
• ⚡ Implemented concurrency limiting (max 4 concurrent operations)
• 🎯 Prevents CPU overload from too many simultaneous brew processes
• 📊 Better visual feedback during operations

v0.2.0

• Added install command for parallel package installation
• Added reinstall command with --all flag support
• Parallel execution for all package operations

v0.1.0

• Initial release with parallel upgrade command

License

Licensed under the MIT license (LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT).

Author

Behnam Mohammadi