Where does homebrew log?

Solution 1:

~/Library/Logs/Homebrew/

Homebrew creates log files in your Library folder at: ~/Library/Logs/Homebrew/

You can view the log files by holding down Option and using the Finder menu item: Go > Library, then navigating to Logs > Homebrew.

Alternatively, you can use the Console.app application to browse to the log files.

Homebrew History

The default creation of individual log files was added during 2013 to Homebrew.

Homebrew issue #10430 talks about logging and build errors. The issue report mentions no log file is kept but explains that a log can be created with the command format:

brew install <formula> 2>&1 | tee install.log

Solution 2:

Logs seem to be in ~/Library/Logs/Homebrew/... They can be viewed either using command line utilities or the Console app.

Solution 3:

This works for the normal brew installs, but nothing is logged to these directories for services (for example, if you install bind, nothing is logged to ~/Library/Logs/Homebrew/bind), possibly because you have to start services via sudo.