til/unix/search-for-homebrew-packages-to-install.md

Search For Homebrew Packages To Install

Let's say we want to install the latest version of PostgreSQL with brew, but we aren't sure either what formulas are available nor what the exact name would be.

We can run a search with the brew search subcommand to get an idea of what is available.

If I run this for even the shorthand of postgres, I get a useful set of results showing me what versions I already have installed and what else is available.

$ brew search postgres
==> Formulae
check_postgres    postgresql@11 ✔   postgresql@13     postgresql@15     postgrest         postgis
postgresql@10     postgresql@12     postgresql@14     postgresql@16     qt-postgresql

==> Casks
navicat-for-postgresql               postgres-unofficial                  sqlpro-for-postgres
postbird                             postgrespreferencepane

If you meant "postgres" specifically:
postgresql breaks existing databases on upgrade without human intervention.

See a more specific version to install with:
  brew formulae | grep postgresql@

I can then go on to run brew install postgresql@16 to get the latest.

See brew search --help for more details.