LAlatexr·Feb 22, 2026Submission
Google keyword `brew` points to a malicious site with false instructions
4 points · Open discussionHomebrew
install
Shell2016–2026
Homebrew / install
install
📥 Homebrew (un)installer
6Distinct people
7Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
2.7KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
📥 Homebrew (un)installer
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use has been verified yet.
What people are saying
No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:03:16 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year7 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2016-04-25 23:53:07 UTC to 2026-02-22 10:38:42 UTC.
* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2026 (partial) | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 1 | 0 |
What Hacker News says
7 sourcesJust as a note, you can almost always get by with `xcode-select --install`[0] which installs the Xcode Command Line Tools, which is what `brew` et al. need.
`brew` added this as a step in its install script[1], too.
So, unless you are planning to do development in Xcode or want access to the device simulators for testing, there isn’t really much reason to actually install the Xcode application.
[0]: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/107307/how-can-i-i...
[1]: https://github.com/Homebrew/install/blob/ee0036121331ff32d72...
In Using 2 Editors Because Xcode Is DumbHeh, you and I posted about the same time, but it seems that's actually only true for arm64: https://github.com/Homebrew/install/blob/master/install.sh#L...
In Brew Is a Bad NeighborI was going to say that recent installs have switched to /opt/Homebrew, but while digging up supporting evidence I noticed that they bizarrely only do that for arm64 installs: https://github.com/Homebrew/install/blob/master/install.sh#L...
In Brew Is a Bad NeighborHomebrew package manager installer merges Apple Silicon support
2 points · Open discussionI'm the maintainer who added this. I apologise for the poor communication. I would have responded sooner but I've been on a plane for the last 10 hours. I'd hoped the documentation would have made clear our reasons for doing this but I feel the discomfort so since getting off my flight I've opened and merged three PRs (https://github.com/Homebrew/install/pull/42 https://github.com/Homebrew/brew/pull/143 https://github.com/Homebrew/brew/pull/146) to better communicate this to our users on installation and `brew update` before any information is sent and ease the opt-out process.
In Homebrew now sends usage information to Google Analytics