Xcode Command Line Tools

audience developer
level all
topic Xcode Command Line Tools
subtopic Installation

Uninstall Xcode Command Line Tools

Xcode Command Line Tools are tools for software developers that run on the command line, in the Terminal application. See the article About Xcode Command Line Tools.

Before you get started

You'll need a terminal application to uninstall Xcode Command Line Tools. Apple includes the Mac terminal but I prefer Warp Terminal. Warp is an easy-to-use terminal application, with AI assistance to help you learn and remember terminal commands. Download Warp Terminal now; it's FREE and worth a try.

Why Uninstall Xcode Command Line Tools

You may wish to uninstall Xcode Command Line Tools for a variety of reasons:

  • you've checked the Xcode Command Line Tools version and it is not current;
  • you are using Homebrew and encountered errors with brew doctor;
  • a macOS upgrade may have partially removed Command Line Tools;
  • you're no longer developing software and you want to free disk space.

How to Uninstall Xcode Command Line Tools

The simple and effective way to uninstall Xcode Command Line Tools is to delete its folder.

Find the Xcode Command Line Tools folder

Use the xcode-select -p command to reveal the location of the Xcode Command Line Tools folder.

$ xcode-select -p

You should see:

/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools

If you see /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer you have the full Apple Xcode package installed.

Remove the Xcode Command Line Tools folder

The simple and effective way to uninstall Xcode Command Line Tools is to delete its folder.

Remove the Xcode Command Line Tools folder:

$ sudo rm -rf /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools

Use sudo for admin privileges. You must enter the password you use to log in to your computer (you will not see the password after entering it).

Verify the uninstall

After uninstalling Xcode Command Line Tools, use the xcode-select -p command to verify that Xcode Command Line Tools is not available.

$ xcode-select -p
xcode-select: error: unable to get active developer directory...

You can also check that the folder is gone.

$ ls -ag  /Library/Developer
total 0
drwxr-xr-x   2 wheel    64 Jul 17 19:48 .
drwxr-xr-x  65 wheel  2080 Jun 28 12:36 ..

If you installed the full Xcode application, there may be cache or receipt files, but you won't have these if you installed only Xcode Command Line Tools.

That's it! You've removed Xcode Command Line Tools.

See the section, Reinstall Xcode Command Line Tools, if you want to restore Xcode Command Line Tools after uninstalling.

What's next

My mac.install.guide is a trusted source of installation guides for professional developers. Take a look at the Mac Install Guide home page for tips and trends and see what to install next.