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Gary Ford
Gary Ford
14,475 Points
Posted by Gary Ford
Gary Ford
14,475 Points

Problems upgrading Git with Homebrew

I get the following warning when installing Git with Homebrew:

Warning: git-2.1.1 already installed, it's just not linked

I had been trying to update my version of Git with Homebrew using:

brew upgrade Git

and received this message: Error: git not installed

I then used the command: brew install git and received this message: Error: The brew link step did not complete successfully The formula built, but is not symlinked into /usr/local Could not symlink bin/git Target /usr/local/bin/git already exists. You may want to remove it: rm /usr/local/bin/git

To force the link and overwrite all conflicting files: brew link --overwrite git

To list all files that would be deleted: brew link --overwrite --dry-run git

I tried the overwrite command and received this error: Error: Could not symlink share/git-core/contrib /usr/local/share/git-core is not writable.

I then ran git --version and received: -bash: /usr/local/bin/git: No such file or directory

then ran brew install Git and received: Warning: git-2.1.1 already installed, it's just not linked

I'm a total loss as to what to do at this point. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

1 Answer

Ricky Catron
Ricky Catron
13,023 Points
Ricky Catron
Ricky Catron
13,023 Points

I am not familar with Homebrew but when you try to upgrade git you use a capital "brew upgrade Git" and when you install it you use a lowercase " brew install git" to a computer those could be completely different programms. Perhaps try "brew upgrade git"? Best of luck!

Edit: After reviewing your question again I noticed there was a not writeable error. Could you need Sudo or administrator privliges? If you do becareful what you overwrite!

Gary Ford
Gary Ford
14,475 Points
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
14,475 Points

I think I got it. Ran brew doctor and followed suggestions and also has a writeable to directory problem I fixed. All seems to be working so far. Thanks Ricky for your suggestions.