Running into a conflict trying to setup git with Homebrew

Question

Having an issue getting git setup via Homebrew. I've run brew update and brew doctor and I keep running into the same message:

Warning: You have unlinked kegs in your Cellar

Leaving kegs unlinked can lead to build-trouble and cause brews that depend on
those kegs to fail to run properly once built. Run `brew link` on these:

git


$ brew link git

Linking /usr/local/Cellar/git/2.2.2... Error: File exists - /usr/local/share/man/man3

I've tried a few suggestions such as brew link --overwrite git and checking my paths but still running into the same problem. Now I did have the Github app (since been uninstalled) which may have created the conflict. Some have suggested downloading a third party app such as AppCleaner but I'd rather not if there's another viable option.

Answer 1

I'd try removing homebrews git and then installing it.

brew uninstall git

If you get the error when you do that, then you can manually remove the symlinks from man3, something like

rm /usr/local/share/man/man3/Git*

The usual caveats apply about using rm wisely, however the one of the mains points of homebrew is to put things in a safe place (modified /usr/local) so that if something goes wrong you can just delete things and start again. Deleting man pages is fairly harmless.

Finally if that fails just remove Git from the Cellar and reinstall

rm -rf /usr/local/Cellar/git    

Be particularly careful about this