zb uninstall

Remove one or more installed packages

Uninstalls one or more formulas from your system, removing both the symlinks and the installation metadata.

Usage

zb uninstall <FORMULAS>... [OPTIONS]

Arguments

FORMULAS · string[]

One or more formula names to uninstall. Required unless --all is used.

Examples: jq, wget, git

Options

--all · boolean

Uninstall all currently installed formulas. When this flag is used, you don’t need to specify individual formula names.

Warning: This will remove all packages installed with zerobrew.

--root · path

Environment: ZEROBREW_ROOT

Override the root directory for zerobrew’s content-addressable store.

--prefix · path

Environment: ZEROBREW_PREFIX

Override the prefix directory where packages are linked.

--concurrency · number

Default: 20

Number of concurrent operations to perform.

--auto-init · boolean

Alias: --yes

Environment: ZEROBREW_AUTO_INIT

Automatically initialize zerobrew if not already set up.

Examples

Uninstall a single package

zb uninstall jq

==> Uninstalling jq...

Uninstall multiple packages

zb uninstall wget git

==> Uninstalling wget, git...
    ○ wget... ✓
    ○ git... ✓

Uninstall all packages

zb uninstall --all

==> Uninstalling jq, wget, git, openssl@3, pcre2...
    ○ jq... ✓
    ○ wget... ✓
    ○ git... ✓
    ○ openssl@3... ✓
    ○ pcre2... ✓

If no packages are installed:

No formulas installed.

Behavior

When you uninstall a formula, zerobrew:

1. Removes symlinks from the prefix directory (e.g., /usr/local/bin)
2. Removes installation metadata from the local database
3. Keeps store entries - the actual files remain in the content-addressable store

To clean up unused store entries, use zb gc after uninstalling packages.

Error Handling

Formula not installed

If you try to uninstall a package that isn’t installed:

Error: Formula 'nonexistent' is not installed

Partial failures

When uninstalling multiple packages, zerobrew will attempt to uninstall all of them even if some fail:

zb uninstall jq wget nonexistent

==> Uninstalling jq, wget, nonexistent...
    ○ jq... ✓
    ○ wget... ✓
    ○ nonexistent... ✗
Error: Failed to uninstall nonexistent: Formula 'nonexistent' is not installed

Comparison with Homebrew

Feature	zerobrew	Homebrew
Uninstall command	zb uninstall	brew uninstall
Uninstall all	zb uninstall --all	brew uninstall $(brew list)
Remove dependencies	Manual with zb gc	brew autoremove
Store cleanup	zb gc	Automatic

Related Commands

• zb install - Install packages
• zb list - List installed packages
• zb gc - Clean up unused store entries
• zb reset - Uninstall everything and reset zerobrew