Install icu4c version 63 with Homebrew

by

Solution:

  1. cd to Homebrew’s formula directory
  • Intel 
    cd $(brew --prefix)/Homebrew/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-core/Formula
  • M1 
    cd $(brew --prefix)/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-core/Formula
  1. Find desired commit (version 63 for icu4c) to checkout
git log --follow icu4c.rb
  1. Checkout to a new branch
git checkout -b icu4c-63 e7f0f10dc63b1dc1061d475f1a61d01b70ef2cb7
  1. Reinstall the library with the new version
brew reinstall ./icu4c.rb
  1. Switch to the reinstalled version
brew switch icu4c 63.1
  1. Checkout back to master
git checkout master

Sources:

  • Homebrew install specific version of formula?
  • http://hanxue-it.blogspot.com/2018/08/macos-homebrew-installing-older-version-of-software.html

Bonus for those who ended up using this more than once:

# zsh
function hiicu63() {
  local last_dir=$(pwd)

  cd $(brew --prefix)/Homebrew/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-core/Formula
  git checkout icu4c-63
  brew reinstall ./icu4c.rb
  brew switch icu4c 63.1
  git checkout master

  cd $last_dir
}

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