github.com/rjallais/ubrew

A fast package manager for macOS and Linux. Written in Odin. Native install pipeline for the top 100 Homebrew formulae and top 100 casks (no brew, no Ruby), with verified Homebrew fallback for everything else and native .deb support for Linux/Docker.

• Fast warm installs — already-installed no-ops return in milliseconds (5.8ms on the v0.1.192 sandboxed yt-dlp benchmark)
• Parallel downloads — all dependencies download and extract at the same time
• No Ruby runtime — single static binary, instant startup
• No auto-update — ubrew install just installs; self-update is explicit via ubrew update
• No quarantine — cask installs skip com.apple.quarantine, so apps open without Gatekeeper prompts
• Native installs — top 100 formulae and top 100 casks install without Homebrew, Ruby, or brew subprocess (v0.1.192)
• Third-party taps — ubrew install user/tap/formula just works. The only fast Homebrew client with tap support
• Drop-in Homebrew replacement — same formulas, same bottles, same casks
• Linux + Docker — native .deb support, up to 13x faster than apt-get on warm installs

Homebrew is great software and powers millions of dev machines. ubrew makes different tradeoffs:

If you rely on post_install hooks, build-from-source options, or Mac App Store integration, Homebrew is still the right choice. ubrew covers the fast path: bottles, casks, and bundles.

Benchmarks on Apple Silicon (GitHub Actions macos-14), 2026-06-22. Auto-updated weekly.

ubrew is 6.8x smaller than zerobrew and 47x smaller than Homebrew. See how these are measured in the benchmark workflow.

ubrew's --deb mode is a full apt-get replacement: fetches APT package indices, resolves dependencies, downloads and extracts .deb files — all in pure Odin with no subprocess calls.

Verified benchmarks on Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS (aarch64, Docker/Colima), median of 3 runs. Warm = NBIX binary index cache + cached .deb blobs, --skip-postinst. See bench/ for reproduction.

What makes it fast:

• NBIX binary index cache — 70K packages deserialized in 32ms (vs 3s HTTP + 72MB gzip decompress + text parse)
• 8-thread parallel .deb downloads with HTTP connection reuse
• 8-thread parallel extraction — concurrent ar/gzip/tar parsing via native Odin tar
• Arena allocator — single deinit() frees all 70K parsed packages

# Or via Homebrew
brew tap rjallais/ubrew https://github.com/rjallais/ubrew
brew install ubrew

# Or build from source (needs Odin + mise)
git clone https://github.com/rjallais/ubrew.git
cd ubrew && mise run build

ubrew update

ubrew install tree               # install a package
ubrew install ffmpeg wget curl   # install multiple at once
ubrew install --shims yt-dlp     # expose yt-dlp, keep dependency tools private
ubrew remove tree                # uninstall
ubrew list                       # see what's installed
ubrew info jq                    # show package details
ubrew search ripgrep             # search formulas and casks

ubrew install --shims yt-dlp

Shimmed installs are an experimental link mode for packages whose dependencies ship command-line tools you do not want exposed globally. The requested formula gets wrapper shims in /opt/ubrew/prefix/bin; dependency executables are kept out of prefix/bin and are only added to that wrapper's private PATH. This keeps commands like deno or python available to the requested tool without making those dependency executables first-class shell commands. You can also enable this mode for formula installs with UBREW_SHIMS=1.

ubrew install steipete/tap/sag   # install from a third-party tap
ubrew install indirect/tap/bpb   # taps with bottles work too

ubrew fetches the Ruby formula directly from GitHub, parses it, and installs — no brew tap step needed. Supports bottles, source builds, and pre-built binaries.

ubrew install --cask firefox     # install a .dmg/.pkg/.zip app
ubrew remove --cask firefox      # uninstall it
ubrew upgrade --cask             # upgrade all casks

As of v0.1.192, the top 100 casks install through ubrew's native pipeline — no brew subprocess, no Homebrew prefix, no Ruby. Native cask support covers apps, .pkg, fonts, binaries, suites, copied artifacts, installer scripts, .tar.xz, and extensionless vendor URLs. Casks outside the top 100 still fall back to the verified Homebrew path.

ubrew install --deb curl wget git    # install from Ubuntu/Debian repos
ubrew remove --deb curl              # remove a deb package
ubrew upgrade --deb                  # upgrade all installed deb packages
ubrew list                           # shows deb packages alongside brew packages
ubrew outdated                       # checks deb packages for newer versions too

# Replace slow apt-get in Dockerfiles
COPY --from=ubrew/ubrew /ubrew /usr/local/bin/ubrew
RUN ubrew init && ubrew install --deb curl wget git

• Auto-detects distro and architecture (Ubuntu/Debian, amd64/arm64)
• Resolves virtual packages via Provides: field (e.g. build-essential works)
• Picks the best alternative when multiple packages satisfy a dependency
• Runs postinst scripts and ldconfig so shared libraries work out of the box
• Tracks installed files in state.json for clean removal
• Content-addressable cache — warm installs are instant

ubrew outdated                   # see what's behind
ubrew upgrade                    # upgrade everything
ubrew upgrade tree               # upgrade one package
ubrew pin tree                   # prevent a package from upgrading
ubrew unpin tree                 # allow upgrades again

ubrew rollback tree              # revert to the previous version
ubrew bundle dump                # export installed packages to a Brewfile
ubrew bundle install             # reinstall everything from a Brewfile

ubrew doctor                     # check for common problems
ubrew cleanup                    # remove old caches and orphaned files
ubrew cleanup --dry-run          # see what would be removed first

ubrew telemetry status
ubrew telemetry off
ubrew telemetry on

ubrew sends anonymized, best-effort download timing events to https://backend.trilok.ai/v1/telemetry/system. This helps prioritize which packages and casks should get native ubrew support first, based on real download/install demand and slow paths.

The exact event shape is:

{
  "schema": 1,
  "source": "ubrew",
  "event": "download",
  "os": "macos",
  "arch": "arm64",
  "ram_gb": 128,
  "cpu_count": 10,
  "operation": "download",
  "target_kind": "formula",
  "target_name": "uv",
  "duration_ms": 120,
  "download_bytes": 33000000,
  "success": true
}

It does not send URLs, paths, hostnames, usernames, IPs, user IDs, full package lists, or command history. target_name is only a package-like token such as uv, firefox, or owner/tap/pkg. You can opt out with ubrew telemetry off, UBREW_NO_TELEMETRY=1, or UBREW_TELEMETRY=0.

ubrew deps ffmpeg                # list all dependencies
ubrew deps --tree ffmpeg         # show dependency tree
ubrew services list              # show launchctl services from installed packages
ubrew services start postgresql  # start a service
ubrew services stop postgresql   # stop a service

ubrew completions zsh >> ~/.zshrc
ubrew completions bash >> ~/.bashrc
ubrew completions fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/ubrew.fish

ubrew update                     # self-update ubrew
ubrew init                       # create directory structure (run once)
ubrew help                       # show all commands

ubrew install ffmpeg                        # macOS: Homebrew bottles
  │
  ├─ 1. Resolve dependencies (BFS, parallel API calls)
  ├─ 2. Skip anything already installed (warm path: ~3.5ms)
  ├─ 3. Download bottles in parallel (native HTTP, streaming SHA256)
  ├─ 4. Extract into content-addressable store (/opt/ubrew/store/<sha>)
  ├─ 5. Clone into Cellar via APFS clonefile (zero-copy, instant)
  ├─ 6. Relocate Mach-O headers + batch codesign
  └─ 7. Symlink binaries into /opt/ubrew/prefix/bin/

ubrew install --deb curl                    # Linux: .deb packages
  │
  ├─ 1. Detect distro from /etc/os-release (Ubuntu/Debian, amd64/arm64)
  ├─ 2. Fetch + decompress package index (main + universe components)
  ├─ 3. Build provides map for virtual package resolution
  ├─ 4. Resolve dependencies (topological sort, index-aware alternatives)
  ├─ 5. Download .debs with streaming SHA256 verification
  ├─ 6. Parse ar archive, decompress data.tar natively (zstd/gzip)
  ├─ 7. Extract to / and track installed files in state.json
  ├─ 8. Run postinst scripts (ca-certificates, ldconfig, etc.)
  └─ 9. Run ldconfig for shared library registration

ubrew install steipete/tap/sag              # Third-party taps
  │
  ├─ 1. Detect tap syntax (user/tap/formula)
  ├─ 2. Fetch Ruby formula from GitHub (raw.githubusercontent.com)
  ├─ 3. Parse .rb file (version, url, sha256, deps, bottle blocks)
  ├─ 4. Resolve dependencies normally (they're homebrew-core names)
  └─ 5. Install via bottle or source path (same pipeline as above)

Dependency ordering walks the explicit formula graph and topologically sorts it in O(V+E). The O(1) resolver improvement in v0.1.190 refers to queue dequeue during that sort, not solving arbitrary version constraints.

Key design choices:

• Content-addressable store — deduplicates bottles by SHA256. Reinstalls are instant because the data is already there.
• APFS clonefile — copy-on-write on macOS means no extra disk space when materializing from the store.
• Streaming SHA256 — hash is verified during download, no second pass over the file.
• Native binary parsing — reads Mach-O (macOS) and ELF (Linux) headers directly instead of spawning otool/patchelf.
• Native ar + decompression — .deb extraction without dpkg, ar, or zstd binaries. Only needs tar.
• Single static binary — no runtime dependencies. 1.2 MB.

# Run unit tests
odin test src
mise run test-unit

# Run integration smoke tests
mise run test

# Cross-compile and run on Linux via Colima/Docker
odin build src -out:ubrew -o:speed -target:linux_amd64
docker run --rm -v $(pwd)/ubrew:/ubrew:ro ubuntu:24.04 /ubrew help

Follow CONTRIBUTING.md for all future issues and PRs.

The short version:

• every PR must be tied to an issue
• every fix must show red-to-green proof
• every non-trivial branch must be rebased onto current main
• PRs over 500 changed lines will usually be rejected unless they are clearly justified, tightly scoped, and good enough to survive strict review

/opt/ubrew/
  cache/
    blobs/      # downloaded bottles (by SHA256)
    api/        # cached formula metadata (5-min TTL)
    tokens/     # GHCR auth tokens (4-min TTL)
    tmp/        # partial downloads
  store/        # extracted bottles (by SHA256)
  prefix/
    Cellar/     # installed packages
    Caskroom/   # installed casks
    bin/        # symlinks to binaries
    opt/        # symlinks to keg dirs
  db/
    state.json  # installed package state

ubrew uses Homebrew's formulas, bottles, and cask definitions. It's a faster client for the same ecosystem — not a fork.

• Bottle installs — all pre-built Homebrew bottles install correctly
• Cask installs — .dmg, .zip, .pkg, and .tar.gz casks
• Dependency resolution — same transitive deps as Homebrew
• Third-party taps — ubrew install user/tap/formula fetches from GitHub
• Shared Cellar — packages install to /opt/ubrew/prefix/Cellar/ (same layout as Homebrew)
• Bundle/Brewfile — ubrew bundle dump and ubrew bundle install for common brew "pkg" and cask "pkg" lines

• Ruby post_install hooks — Homebrew formulae with Ruby post_install blocks won't run those hooks. Most bottles don't need them.
• Build from source with custom options — args: ["with-feature"] in Brewfiles is ignored
• tap command — ubrew auto-fetches taps inline; standalone brew tap is not needed
• Mac App Store (mas) — not supported
• Complex Ruby DSL in Brewfiles — conditional blocks, custom Ruby code

ubrew migrate    # scan /opt/homebrew/Cellar and Caskroom, import into ubrew's DB

After migration, ubrew list, ubrew outdated, and ubrew upgrade will see your existing packages.

Packages installed by ubrew live in /opt/ubrew/prefix/Cellar/ — they don't interfere with Homebrew's /opt/homebrew/Cellar/. You can safely remove ubrew with ubrew nuke without affecting Homebrew.

Experimental — works well for common packages. If something breaks, open an issue.

License: Apache 2.0

See CHANGELOG.md for version history.