Can't `brew link` an unlinked keg

Question

$: which node
$: node
-bash: node: command not found
$: brew install node
Error: node-0.6.18 already installed
$: brew doctor
Error: You have unlinked kegs in your Cella         


        

Answer 1

I personally had to work some sudo chmod magic for node files that were not writable. Brew didn't take care of them by default even after --force was enabled.

Answer 2

I was able to relink the correct version of node by running:

brew cleanup
brew link node
brew uninstall node
brew install node

Answer 3

I was getting:

$ brew link node
Error: No such keg: /usr/local/Cellar/node
$ brew link node@8
Warning: node@8 is keg-only and must be linked with --force

That command helped to get everything working again:

brew link --overwrite --force node@8

Answer 4

To force the link and overwrite all conflicting files:

brew link --overwrite node