I installed a package with homebrew (qt). I'd like to modify the source code and rebuild the package. I can't seem to find the source code, though. brew --cache returns a directory that doesn't exist, and the code for qt isn't in /usr/local/Cellar. Am I missing something? Does homebrew remove the source code after the application is built?
Homebrew only keeps binaries. If your Homebrew cache directory (which is normally at /Library/Caches/Homebrew, but can be found using brew --cache, as you noted) has been moved or deleted, then you'll have to get the source code again. You can grab just the source code with brew fetch qt.
If you get only the source package, it may be missing the patch included in the formula and not exactly the source of the binary you are currently running. To get the source tree with the patch applied, you may do:
brew unpack --patch <formula>
From the man page:
unpack [--git|--patch] [--destdir=path] formulae
Unpack the source files for formulae into subdirectories of the
current working directory. If --destdir=path is given, the sub-
directories will be created in the directory named by <path>
instead.
If --patch is passed, patches for formulae will be applied to
the unpacked source.
If --git is passed, a Git repository will be initalized in the
unpacked source. This is useful for creating patches for the
software.
Related
When I installed 7zip via home brew (Formula sevenzip), i noticed that i cannot run it via sevenzip and even brew info sevenzip did not tell me the name of the binary.
Only after looking in the script file on Github I noticed a command 7zz but there must be an easier way to find out the binaries or commands associated with a homebrew package.
The simplest I know is:
brew ls PACKAGE
and you can normally see it pretty quickly. Personally, I use p7zip as PACKAGE.
Alternatively, as brew --prefix tells you where binaries are installed (via symlinks), you can find the newest installed binary with:
ls -lrt $(brew --prefix)/bin
and it's the last one listed.
I have installed FFTW3 using HomeBrew which downloads the file located at https://homebrew.bintray.com/bottles/fftw-3.3.8_1.mojave.bottle.tar.gz and installs it on my system which is running on macOS 10.14.6. Now, the installation is fine and gcc is able to compile code that uses the fttw3.h header file.
However, there is supposed to be a ./configure script which I should be able to use to customise my configuration and, unfortunately, it does not exist in /usr/local/Cellar/fftw/3.3.8_1.
Where can I find it? How else should I configure the installation?
The build process of a Homebrew package is defined in a file called formula, which is written in Ruby.
A formula is a package definition written in Ruby. It can be created with brew create <URL> where is a zip or tarball, installed with brew install <formula>.
You can get the formula for fftw from homebrew/core/Formula/fftw.rb.
And the configuration options are defined in the args array.
# https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/blob/e7c8239a8a7c9b4501c4a18a4028cae82e254984/Formula/fftw.rb#L21-L30
def install
args = [
"--enable-shared",
"--disable-debug",
"--prefix=#{prefix}",
"--enable-threads",
"--disable-dependency-tracking",
"--enable-mpi",
"--enable-openmp",
]
Download the fftw.rb formula file and change the configuration options. After that, install the modified formula by building it from source.
brew install --build-from-source local/path/to/modified-fftw.rb
Extended Reading
To get how to write your own formula. Check
Formula Cookbook
How to Create and Maintain a Tap
FAQ
Why brew edit fftw is not recommended?
Homebrew is made of two parts: the brew command and formula repos. fftw.rb is a formula defined in the built-in, local formula repo homebrew-core. When you use brew edit fftw, you are editing the file from the local repo directly. Unless you're going to contribute to this repo, don't edit files within the homebrew-core repo directly.
How do I specify a version number when installing something with brew cask install?
For recent versions of Homebrew, Jethro' instructions below may not work work, because we will get an error like:
Invalid usage: Non-checksummed download of <FORMULA_NAME> formula file from an arbitrary URL is unsupported.
I found a workaround:
Go to the Homebrew Cask search page: https://formulae.brew.sh/cask/
Type and find the application you are looking for
Click Cask code link
On Github click History button
Find the version you need by reading the commit messages and view the raw file. Confirm the version variable (normally on line 2) is the version you need.
Click on the name of the commit, then three dots and select View file
Right-click Raw button and Save Link As... to download the file locally
When downloaded, go to download directory cd Downloads/
Finally run brew install --cask <FORMULA_NAME>.rb
Voilà 😄
If you need some visual assistance check the screenshots here.
You can manually point brew at the ruby file for a specific version of a cask, using a git hash. This lets you control which version is installed.
For example:
Find the cask .rb file on the homebrew-cask git repo that you
want.
Get the commit hash, eg
cee7983cd95fc92fdc250fc509f2379cefe647fe in the example above.
Git may give you instructions to view the file history locally - eg git clone https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask.git git log master -- Casks/CASK_NAME.rb
Point brew at the file using the hash: brew cask install https://raw.githubusercontent.com/caskroom/homebrew-cask/cee7983cd95fc92fdc250fc509f2379cefe647fe/Casks/minikube.rb
The other answers are pretty heavy handed, an alternative is to use the homebrew/cask-versions tap which contains a list of the old (major) versions of casks.
To use them tap it with brew tap homebrew/cask-versions and then you can search for your cask again like brew search --cask yourformula and see if what you're looking for is there.
Or you can see the complete list of casks by clicking on Casks folder at https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask-versions .
If you run
brew edit [formula]
you can change the version that matches your operating system. If you know the checksum, enter that too. If not, just comment that line out with # and it will skip the check. Then run
HOMEBREW_NO_INSTALL_FROM_API=1 brew reinstall [formula]
Please help understand what is going on--or whether any action is required. I've gone through a lot of posts on dealing with brew, node, symlink, uninstalled and reinstalled node, npm, yarn, tried brew cleanup. When brew doctor produced these warnings--
Warning: Broken symlinks were found. Remove them with `brew prune`:
/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/.bin/JSONStream
/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/.bin/errno
/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/.bin/is-ci
/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/.bin/node-gyp
/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/.bin/opener
/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/.bin/qrcode-terminal
/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/.bin/rc
/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/.bin/semver
/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/.bin/sshpk-conv
/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/.bin/sshpk-sign
/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/.bin/sshpk-verify
/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/.bin/uuid
/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/.bin/which
When I tried brew prune, I got:
newmbp$ brew link node
Warning: Already linked: /usr/local/Cellar/node/10.11.0
I noticed the files (to be linked or unlinked) are in separate folders, but have been struggling to understand the implications of having files in /usr/local/Cellar vs in /usr/local/lib
The precipitating factor that led to all of this was the fan on my laptop runs furiously from time to time, often while MAMP is running.
brew cleanup --prune-prefix (ex- brew prune) removed the broken symlinks, so the issue should be gone.
The fact that brew link node complains has nothing to do with this; it’s a completely different command. It’s not even an error, just a warning: "you asked me to link node but it’s already linked" so everything’s fine here.
Homebrew installs its files in /usr/local/Cellar. On the other hand, /usr/local/lib is a shared directory commonly used for libraries. In order for software to find libs Homebrew installed, it symlinks them in it.
For example, let’s say you have a formula foo version 1.2.3 that installs a library bar. After running brew install foo you should get something like this:
# the library files
/usr/local/Cellar/foo/1.2.3/lib/bar
# a symlink to the library files from /usr/local/lib
/usr/local/lib/bar -> /usr/local/Cellar/foo/1.2.3/lib/bar
If you brew uninstall foo, it removes both the library files and the symlink.
Those Homebrew symlinks can be manipulated with brew unlink <formula> (remove them) and brew link <formula> (add them). brew install runs brew link for you so you don’t need to. This is the reason why you get a warning: your Node symlinks already exist.
brew doctor performs various checks, including check_for_broken_symlinks. This one looks into directories such as /usr/local/var or /usr/local/lib for broken symlinks. A broken symlink is a symlink whose target doesn’t exist, often because it has been removed.
The important point to understand here is that Homebrew looks at all symlinks, not just the ones it created. Broken symlinks may cause issues, which is why Homebrew warns you about them, but if everything’s working fine for you feel free to ignore the warning.
Is there a way to to recompile from an edited source code via homebrew?
I did a change on the source user.hpp of Boost which I now want to recompile Boost with. I tried --build-from-source and --enable-bar but neither works, saying that it is already installed. The only way I can recompile is by reinstall but that simply overwrites the source code I changed.
Any idea?
First option
Download the archive, edit the files, and zip the archive as homebrew does (same name and format).
If you kept the original folder structure created by Homebrew, you can put the modified archive in ~/Library/Caches/Homebrew and then try brew install -f. (the -f is maybe not strictly necessary but it may be need for the SHA-1 mismatch.)
More info on this blog.
Second option
Pulled out from the Homebrew wiki, install the package without homebrew and then link it with brew.
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/Cellar/foo/1.2 && make && make install && brew link foo
Another approach is to add a patch to the homebrew formula (you can edit the formula using brew edit <formula-name>):
https://github.com/Homebrew/brew/blob/master/docs/Formula-Cookbook.md#patches