OpenHarmony ecology ushered in a heavy weapon! Harmonybrew, as an open source package manager, is the perfect port for Homebrew mature system, providing out-of-the-box command line solutions for all-scenario devices in HarmonyOS. It not only retains the native operation logic to reduce learning costs, but also achieves 60% Homebrew formula is directly compatible, and completely solves the pain point of ecological incompleteness of domestic tools. This article explains in detail its installation and configuration process and technical advantages, and reveals how to make up for the development of the short board through the power of open source.
I. Preface
After a year of polishing, the Harmonybrew open source project is officially launched!
Harmonybrew is a Homebrew port for the OpenHarmony platform, designed to provide out-of-the-box, simple and efficient package manager and supporting software repositories for all-scenario devices in Hongmeng. The project is fully adapted to the HarmonyOS PC, OpenHarmony development board, HarmonyOS/OpenHarmony container and other HarmonyOS/OpenHarmony device forms, complementing the core shortcomings of the OpenHarmony command-line ecology.
Open source community address: https://atomgit.com/Harmonybrew
Second, the quick start tutorial (Hongmeng PC HiShell environment)
This article takes the HarmonyOS PC HiShell environment as an example, organizes the complete installation and configuration process, and the steps are simple and the whole process is deployed one-click.
2.1 Uninstalling conflict software
If the two software GitNext and DevBox are installed on the device, they need to be uninstalled in advance to avoid environmental conflicts and cause installation failure.
2.2 Open system security and developer privileges
To ensure the normal installation and operation of Harmonybrew, two system permissions need to be opened:
Open the developer option: Settings → System → Developer Options, turn on the developer switch;
Allow non-app market expansion: Set up → Privacy and Security → Advanced, open “Run extensions from non-app markets.”
2.3 One-click installation of Harmonybrew
Open the terminal and execute the following official installation commands to automatically complete the full set of deployments:
zsh -c “$(curl -fsSL https://harmonybrew.atomgit.com/install.sh)”
2.4 Configuring environment variables
After the installation is complete, follow the script prompt to execute the following command to write the brew tool to the system environment variable, which takes effect globally:
echo >> ~/.zshrc
After the configuration is complete, you can use the full set of brew commands directly at any terminal to manage the package normally.
III. Core characteristics of the project
3.1 Refuse ineffective self-research and reuse the mature ecology of the industry
In the early days of the project, we abandoned the ineffective development idea of “self-research for self-research”, not repeated the wheel, but directly ported the industry’s most mature and widely used Homebrew package manager system.
For a long time, many domestic tools have problems such as poor logic, ecological disability, and poor adaptability, which has greatly improved the threshold for developers to use. Harmonybrew perfectly retains the operation logic of the native Homebrew, and developers do not need to learn new instructions and follow the original usage habits to effectively manage packages on the HarmonyOS device.
The ecological advantages are even more prominent: the project is directly compatible with most Homebrew software recipes, and more than 60% of the Homebrew formula can be compiled, tested and run directly on the Harmonybrew pipeline, without the need to adapt to the HarmonyOS platform separately, and the OpenHarmony command-line software ecosystem is expanded at a speed.
3.2 Deeply plowing open source OpenHarmony, full equipment form adaptation
Unlike most of the HarmonyOS commercial-focused HarmonyOS tool projects, Harmonybrew has made it the highest priority adaptation platform for Tier 1 with OpenHarmony as the core.
The design of the architecture allows the project to completely break away from the hardware manufacturer binding, not only to adapt to the HarmonyOS PC, but also to fully compatible with the OpenHarmony development board (dayu200 rk3568), Hongmeng container (DockerHarmony) and other device forms. Among them, the development board and container environment are the highest level of support, the system restrictions are small, the compatibility is optimal.
Developers can use the open environment such as development boards and containers to complete the development, debugging, and problem investigation work, greatly reducing the threshold of hardware adaptation, and improving the development and troubleshooting efficiency.
Additional Notes: HarmonyOS, as an OpenHarmony commercial distribution, is compatible with this project, but due to system security policy restrictions, the functions of the HarmonyOS PC HiShell environment are slightly limited, which is a system-native restriction and non-project adaptation problems.
3.3 Massive software packages, continuous high-speed iterative updates
At present, the Harmonybrew software warehouse has included 2000+ commonly used software packages, and continues to add and update at hundreds of daily speeds, covering the development, compilation, operation and maintenance, debugging and other full-scenario requirements.
Developers can view the list of all packages through the brew formulae command, the core categories are as follows:
✅ Compiler/interpreter
ohos-sdk, Node.js (22/24/26), OpenJDK (17/21/25), Python (3.12/3.13/3.14), Go, Rust, Perl, Ruby
✅ Build tools
Make, CMake, Ninja, Meson, m4, autotools (autoconf, automake, libtool)
✅ Database services
PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Redis
GNU Basic Toolset
Coreutils, Diffutils, Grep, Gawk, Gnu-tar, Gzip
✅ Commonly used development tools
Git, Strace, Patchelf, Vim, JQ3.4 are not only tools, but also the learning ground for Hongmeng developers
Harmonybrew is worth much more than a set of package managers.
All scripts, documents, and adaptation cases in the open source community of the project are written in accordance with the OpenHarmony live-action teaching standards, which not only serves the package management function, but also serves as a free learning material for new developers to get started with Hongmeng Ecology and enhance practical ability.
All technology precipitation, adaptation experience, and pneumatic solutions are all open source, helping more developers to quickly integrate into the OpenHarmony open source ecosystem and reduce the learning and practice threshold of HarmonyOS development.
Commonly used core commands
Follow the native Homebrew simple instructions, hands zero cost:
# Install the Homebrew Edition
5, written at the end.
Harmonybrew has always adhered to the concept of pragmatic open source, reuse mature ecology, service developer, refused to formalize self-research, and focused on filling the command line ecological shortcomings for OpenHarmony.
In the future, the project will continue to expand the number of software packages, optimize the compatibility of the whole device, and improve the open source documents and cases to provide HarmonyOS developers with a more efficient and worry-free development experience. Welcome to the developer experience, Star, Fork, participate in the co-construction, and improve the OpenHarmony open source ecosystem together!
Open source: https://github.com/HarmonybrewGlobal
Reference: https://blog.csdn.net/hqzing/article/details/161371004
This article by everyone is the product manager author [nutpi], WeChat public number: [nutpi], original / authorized published to everyone is a product manager, without permission, prohibited from reprinting.
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