Homebrew up-to-date, but do I need to worry about `could not link` + `delete path` errors?

Question

I've used homebrew to install rvm and ocaml packages successfully, but I've always wondered about the errors at the end of $ brew update output. For example, when I ran it just now the bash output was:

Error: Could not link:
/usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d/brew

Please delete these paths and run `brew update`.
Error: Could not link:
/usr/local/share/doc/homebrew

Please delete these paths and run `brew update`.
Error: Could not link:
/usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions/_brew

Please delete these paths and run `brew update`.
Error: Could not link:
/usr/local/share/man/man1/brew-cask.1
/usr/local/share/man/man1/brew.1

My colleagues say not to worry about it, but... I worry about it. What can I do to fix them? Just run rm and completely obliterate the "delete me" paths, and mkdir the paths that cannot be linked?

joeytwiddle · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-09 04:06:34Z

17

All the specified files are just symlinks, so don't worry, just remove them.

To make sure that they are symlinks, you can run this:

file -h <what you want to inspect>

edited Nov 9, 2018 at 4:06

joeytwiddle

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answered Jan 27, 2017 at 2:10

equal-l2

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4 Comments

LayneSadler Over a year ago

Thank you for the reassurance. I did a bit of reading about symlinks and then deleted them rm -rf /path

LayneSadler Over a year ago

brew update runs clean now Updated 1 tap (caskroom/cask). No changes to formulae.

LayneSadler Over a year ago

Ah, thank you. Did not know that grey checkmark was clickable!

equal-l2 Over a year ago

Well, I forgot that's gray before clicking.

Atul Kaushik · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-12 05:00:55Z

4

This worked for me:

../usr/local/..$rm -rf /usr/local/share/doc/homebrew

and then

../usr/local/..$brew upgrade

answered Nov 12, 2017 at 5:00

Atul Kaushik

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Comments

Piyushkumar · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-30 15:36:12Z

2

Just try to remove the path which showed on your terminal

$ rm -rf [path]

Example: $ rm -rf /usr/local/share/doc/homebrew

answered May 30, 2019 at 15:36

Piyushkumar

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Comments

Vivek Tamrakar · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-31 16:27:49Z

0

rm -rf FILE_NAME

In your case it should be as follows

rm -rf /usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d/brew

rm -rf /usr/local/share/doc/homebrew

rm -rf /usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions/_brew and so on

answered Jul 31, 2017 at 16:27

Vivek Tamrakar

1

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