Can't install Command Line Tool, “xcode-select --install” doesn't work

Question

I don\'t know how to install the Command Line Tools on OSX Mavericks. Or better: I know how to do it (I just did it on another MacBook), but something goes wrong this time.

Answer 1

Try downloading directly from the Apple Developer Tools site: https://developer.apple.com/downloads/index.action.
This requires signing in with a developer account.

Answer 2

The probem you're having might be that you have an old version of xcode-select which doesn't have the --install option. I had the same problem, and running xcode-select --version revealed I had version 2003, which is an old one.

What you probably need to do is to restore the original xcode-select system shim that came with your OSX Mavericks, so it will refer correctly to any new xcode or CLT versions you install, instead of being stuck on the old version forever.

This blog post details the problem a bit more: http://magnemg.tumblr.com/post/113251602430/how-to-completely-uninstall-osx-gcc-installer

Here is the torrent with the original OSX Mavericks system shims (extracted from the original installer), so you don't have to download and reinstall the entire OS again: https://archive.org/details/completely_uninstall_osx-gcc-installer

Hope this helps anyone else who might stumble upon this question.

Answer 3

If you are not able to install the XCode CLI using terminal command

sudo xcode-select --install

Just download the command line tool from Apple developer website (below link)

https://developer.apple.com/download/more/

And install it manually.

Answer 4

I came across this issue when I removed Xcode from my laptop (Not enough disk space) and wanted to just install the commandline tools. It installed, but did not fix the Xcode-select path. Using the information above, I then ran:

xcode-select -s /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools

Homebrew is now working great with just the command line tools and I have 9 GB back! Therefore, if you have removed Xcode from your system and just installed the command line tools, you will have to manually run the above command line.