How To Install Older Versions of Homebrew Packages
It’s possible to install older versions of Homebrew packages by saving an older version of the corresponding Ruby file locally and running brew install <package>.rb. I’ll use the terraform package as an example.
Let’s say we have terraform version 1.4.5 but we need terraform version 1.3.6. We can start by browsing to https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/tree/master/Formula and try to find the formula for terraform.
Since there are a lot of files here, it’s easier to just modify the URL. Take the name of the package and append it at the end of the url, adding /<package-name>.rb to the URL. The .rb is important because all Homebrew packages are defined in Ruby (files with the .rb extension).
In this case, we’ll append /terraform.rb to the URL like so: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/tree/master/Formula/terraform.rb
That URL will then take us to the Ruby file where the terraform Homebrew package is defined.
Next, click the “History” link on the upper right above the code. In the next page, scroll down until you see the “terraform: update 1.3.6 bottle” link.
Click on the terraform: update 1.3.6 bottle link to see this page:
On the right side above the code block, click on the three dots, then click on “View file”.
This will take you to the package formula for this specific version of terraform.
On the upper right side of the code block, click on “Raw”. This gives us the exact code we need to install Terraform 1.3.6. Save the code locally to a file called terraform.rb. You can manually copy and pase or use curl:
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/169f333f93fe0703b542cdf75b1decd4cb78f68d/Formula/terraform.rb > terraform.rb
Then, remove the existing package:
$ brew remove terraform
Uninstalling /usr/local/Cellar/terraform/1.4.5... (6 files, 69MB)
Then run brew install but specify the file you saved locally to install the older version. We’ll get some warnings but it should be fine.
$ brew install terraform.rb
Error: Failed to load cask: terraform.rb
Cask 'terraform' is unreadable: wrong constant name #<Class:0x00007feed1183f18>
Warning: Treating terraform.rb as a formula.
==> Downloading https://formulae.brew.sh/api/formula.jws.json
######################################################################## 100.0%
==> Fetching terraform
==> Downloading https://ghcr.io/v2/homebrew/core/terraform/manifests/1.3.6
######################################################################## 100.0%
==> Downloading https://ghcr.io/v2/homebrew/core/terraform/blobs/sha256:dad3b9cce25f6ae0d5ddb06029fc266af2d337013828fda6b5fb6c2bcf3f5d
==> Downloading from https://pkg-containers.githubusercontent.com/ghcr1/blobs/sha256:dad3b9cce25f6ae0d5ddb06029fc266af2d337013828fda6b
######################################################################## 100.0%
Warning: terraform 1.4.5 is available and more recent than version 1.3.6.
==> Pouring terraform--1.3.6.ventura.bottle.tar.gz
==> Downloading https://formulae.brew.sh/api/cask.jws.json
######################################################################## 100.0%
🍺 /usr/local/Cellar/terraform/1.3.6: 6 files, 65MB
==> Running `brew cleanup terraform`...
Disable this behaviour by setting HOMEBREW_NO_INSTALL_CLEANUP.
Hide these hints with HOMEBREW_NO_ENV_HINTS (see `man brew`).
Removing: /Users/nelson/Library/Caches/Homebrew/terraform--1.3.6... (19.4MB)
Now terraform version 1.3.6 is installed!
$ terraform version
Terraform v1.3.6