Brew list with installation time
2026-04-09
The command:
brew list --installed-on-request | xargs brew info --json=v1 | jq -r '.[] | "\(.name)\t\(.installed[].time | strftime("%Y-%m-%d"))"' | sort -k 2 | column -t
The breakdown
| Part | What it does |
|---|---|
brew list --installed-on-request | Lists all packages that you explicitly installed |
xargs brew info --json=v1 | Get the info for each installed package in JSON format |
jq -r '.[] | "\(.name)\t\(.installed[].time | strftime("%Y-%m-%d"))"' | Pull the package name and installed timestamp from the JSON. Format the date |
sort -k 2 | Sort by installed date |
column -t | Build a table |