Installing PowerShell on macOS
PowerShell 7 or higher requires macOS 11 and higher. All packages are available on our GitHub
releases page. After the package is installed, run pwsh
from a terminal. Before installing,
check the list of Supported versions below.
Note
PowerShell 7.4 is an in-place upgrade that removes previous versions of PowerShell 7. Preview versions of PowerShell can be installed side-by-side with other versions of PowerShell. If you need to run PowerShell 7.4 side-by-side with a previous version, reinstall the previous version using the binary archive method.
Install the latest stable release of PowerShell
There are several ways to install PowerShell on macOS. Choose one of the following methods:
- Install using Homebrew. Homebrew is the preferred package manager for macOS.
- Install PowerShell via Direct Download
- Install from binary archives.
If the brew
command isn't found, you need to install Homebrew following their instructions.
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
Once brew
is installed you can install PowerShell.
The following command installs the latest stable release of PowerShell:
brew install powershell/tap/powershell
Finally, verify that your install is working properly:
pwsh
When new versions of PowerShell are released, update Homebrew's formulae and upgrade PowerShell:
brew update
brew upgrade powershell
Note
The commands above can be called from within a PowerShell (pwsh) host, but then the PowerShell
shell must be exited and restarted to complete the upgrade and refresh the values shown in
$PSVersionTable
.
Install the latest preview release of PowerShell
After you've installed Homebrew, you can install PowerShell.
brew install powershell/tap/powershell-preview
Run the following command to start the preview version of PowerShell:
pwsh-preview
When new versions of PowerShell are released, update Homebrew's formulae and upgrade PowerShell:
brew update
brew upgrade powershell-preview
Note
The commands above can be called from within a PowerShell (pwsh) host, but then the PowerShell
shell must be exited and restarted to complete the upgrade. and refresh the values shown in
$PSVersionTable
.
Install the latest LTS release of PowerShell
brew install powershell/tap/powershell-lts
You can now verify your install
pwsh-lts
When new versions of PowerShell are released, run the following command.
brew upgrade powershell-lts
Note
Whether you use the cask or the tap method, when updating to a newer version of PowerShell, use the same method you used to initially install PowerShell. If you use a different method, opening a new pwsh session will continue to use the older version of PowerShell.
If you do decide to use different methods, there are ways to correct the issue using the Homebrew link method.
Installation via Direct Download
Starting with version 7.2, PowerShell supports the Apple M-series Arm-based processors. Download the install package from the releases page onto your computer. The links to the current versions are:
- PowerShell 7.4
- x64 processors - powershell-7.4.6-osx-x64.pkg
- Arm64 processors - powershell-7.4.6-osx-arm64.pkg
- PowerShell 7.2 (LTS)
- x64 processors - powershell-7.2.24-osx-x64.pkg
- Arm64 processors - powershell-7.2.24-osx-arm64.pkg
- PowerShell 7.5-preview
- x64 processors - powershell-7.5.0-rc.1-osx-x64.pkg
- Arm64 processors - powershell-7.5.0-rc.1-arm64.pkg
You can double-click the file and follow the prompts, or install it from the terminal using the following commands. Change the name of the file to match the file you downloaded.
sudo installer -pkg ./Downloads/powershell-7.4.6-osx-x64.pkg -target /
If you are running on macOS Big Sur 11.5 or higher you may receive the following error message when installing the package:
"powershell-7.4.6-osx-x64.pkg" cannot be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software.
There are two ways to work around this issue:
Using the Finder
- Find the package in Finder.
- Control-click (click while pressing the Ctrl key) on the package.
- Select Open from the context menu.
From the command line
- Run
sudo xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine ./Downloads/powershell-7.4.6-osx-x64.pkg
. If you are using PowerShell 7 or higher, you can use theUnblock-File
cmdlet. Include the full path to the.pkg
file. - Install the package as you normally would.
Note
This is a known issue related to package notarization that will be addressed in the future.
Install as a .NET Global tool
If you already have the .NET Core SDK installed, it's easy to install PowerShell as a .NET Global tool.
dotnet tool install --global PowerShell
The dotnet tool installer adds ~/.dotnet/tools
to your PATH
environment variable. However, the
currently running shell doesn't have the updated PATH
. You should be able to start PowerShell from
a new shell by typing pwsh
.
Binary Archives
PowerShell binary tar.gz
archives are provided for the macOS platform to enable advanced
deployment scenarios. When you install using this method you must also manually install any
dependencies.
Note
You can use this method to install any version of PowerShell including the latest:
- Stable release: https://aka.ms/powershell-release?tag=stable
- LTS release: https://aka.ms/powershell-release?tag=lts
- Preview release: https://aka.ms/powershell-release?tag=preview
Installing binary archives on macOS
Download the install package from the releases page onto your computer. The links to the current versions are:
- PowerShell 7.4 (LTS)
- x64 processors - powershell-7.4.6-osx-x64.tar.gz
- Arm64 processors - powershell-7.4.6-osx-arm64.tar.gz
- PowerShell 7.2 (LTS)
- x64 processors - powershell-7.2.24-osx-x64.tar.gz
- Arm64 processors - powershell-7.2.24-osx-arm64.tar.gz
- PowerShell 7.5-preview
- x64 processors - powershell-7.5.0-rc.1-osx-x64.tar.gz
- Arm64 processors - powershell-7.5.0-rc.1-osx-arm64.tar.gz
Use the following commands to install PowerShell from the binary archive. Change the download URL to match the version you want to install.
# Download the powershell '.tar.gz' archive
curl -L -o /tmp/powershell.tar.gz https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/releases/download/v7.4.6/powershell-7.4.6-osx-x64.tar.gz
# Create the target folder where powershell is placed
sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/microsoft/powershell/7
# Expand powershell to the target folder
sudo tar zxf /tmp/powershell.tar.gz -C /usr/local/microsoft/powershell/7
# Set execute permissions
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/microsoft/powershell/7/pwsh
# Create the symbolic link that points to pwsh
sudo ln -s /usr/local/microsoft/powershell/7/pwsh /usr/local/bin/pwsh
Uninstalling PowerShell
If you installed PowerShell with Homebrew, use the following command to uninstall:
brew uninstall --cask powershell
If you installed PowerShell via direct download, PowerShell must be removed manually:
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/pwsh /usr/local/microsoft/powershell
To remove the additional PowerShell paths, refer to the paths section in this document and
remove the paths using sudo rm
.
Note
This isn't necessary if you installed with Homebrew.
Paths
$PSHOME
is/usr/local/microsoft/powershell/7
- The macOS install package creates a symbolic link,
/usr/local/bin/pwsh
that points topwsh
in the$PSHOME
location.
- The macOS install package creates a symbolic link,
- User profiles are read from
~/.config/powershell/profile.ps1
- Default profiles are read from
$PSHOME/profile.ps1
- User modules are read from
~/.local/share/powershell/Modules
- Shared modules are read from
/usr/local/share/powershell/Modules
- Default modules are read from
$PSHOME/Modules
- PSReadLine history are recorded to
~/.local/share/powershell/PSReadLine/ConsoleHost_history.txt
PowerShell respects the XDG Base Directory Specification on macOS.
Supported versions
Microsoft supports PowerShell until PowerShell reaches end-of-support or the version of macOS reaches end-of-support.
- macOS 15 (Sequoia) x64 and Arm64
- macOS 14 (Sonoma) x64 and Arm64
- macOS 13 (Ventura) x64 and Arm64
Apple determines the support lifecycle of macOS. For more information, see the following:
Installation support
Microsoft supports the installation methods in this document. There may be other methods of installation available from other sources. While those tools and methods may work, Microsoft can't support those methods.