Installing DITA-OT via Homebrew

An alternative installation method can be used to install DITA-OT via Homebrew, one of the most popular open-source package managers on macOS and Linux.

Before you begin

The steps below assume you have already installed Homebrew according to the instructions at brew.sh.

Tip:
Verify that your PATH environment variable begins with the bin subfolder of the Homebrew installation directory 1 to ensure that Homebrew-installed software takes precedence over any programs of the same name elsewhere on the system.

Procedure

  1. Update Homebrew to make sure the latest package formulas are available on your system:
    $ brew update
    Already up-to-date.

    Homebrew responds with a list of any new or updated formulæ.

  2. Optional: Check the version of DITA-OT that is available from Homebrew:
    $ brew info dita-ot
    dita-ot: stable 4.2.3
    DITA Open Toolkit is an implementation of the OASIS DITA specification
    https://www.dita-ot.org/
    /opt/homebrew/Cellar/dita-ot/4.2.3 (number of files, package size) *
      Poured from bottle using the formulae.brew.sh API on YYYY-MM-DD at hh:mm:ss
    From: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/blob/master/Formula/dita-ot.rb
    License: Apache-2.0
    ==> Dependencies
    Required: openjdk ✔
    

    The version of the DITA-OT formula is shown, along with basic information on the package.

  3. Install the dita-ot package:
    $ brew install dita-ot
    Downloading…

    Homebrew will automatically download the latest version of the toolkit, install it in a subfolder of the local package Cellar and symlink the dita command to the bin subfolder of the Homebrew installation directory.

  4. Optional: Verify the installation:
    $ which dita
    /opt/homebrew/bin/dita

    The response confirms that the system will use the Homebrew-installed version of DITA-OT.

  5. Optional: Check the DITA-OT version number:
    $ dita --version
    DITA-OT version 4.2.3
    The DITA-OT version number appears on the console.

Results

You can now run the dita command to transform DITA content.

1 Homebrew’s default installation location depends on the operating system architecture:
  • /usr/local on macOS Intel
  • /opt/homebrew on macOS ARM
  • /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew on Linux