Unable to create new local tap

[jarshwah]

brew doctor output

Please note that these warnings are just used to help the Homebrew maintainers
with debugging if you file an issue. If everything you use Homebrew for is
working fine: please don't worry or file an issue; just ignore this. Thanks!

Warning: Some installed formulae are deprecated or disabled.
You should find replacements for the following formulae:
  icu4c@75

Warning: The following casks have the same name as core casks:
  1password/tap/1password-cli
Some of these can be resolved with:
  brew untap 1password/tap

Verification

• My "brew doctor output" above says Your system is ready to brew. and am still able to reproduce my issue.
• I ran brew update twice and am still able to reproduce my issue.
• This issue's title and/or description do not reference a single formula e.g. brew install wget. If they do, open an issue at https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/issues/new/choose instead.

brew config output

HOMEBREW_VERSION: 4.4.24-291-gf3bd91d
ORIGIN: https://github.com/Homebrew/brew
HEAD: f3bd91d3afe086824d24708230e1f0c7f943135a
Last commit: 3 hours ago
Branch: master
Core tap HEAD: 03867d2aaf87e0a5fa0aa70f65697ca942ab418f
Core tap last commit: 50 minutes ago
Core tap JSON: 20 Mar 11:11 UTC
Core cask tap HEAD: 13ded366909526e56bed9d27091f29b80e2bd69f
Core cask tap last commit: 16 minutes ago
Core cask tap JSON: 20 Mar 11:11 UTC
HOMEBREW_PREFIX: /opt/homebrew
HOMEBREW_CASK_OPTS: ["--appdir=/Applications"]
HOMEBREW_EDITOR: code --wait
HOMEBREW_MAKE_JOBS: 8
HOMEBREW_SORBET_RUNTIME: set
Homebrew Ruby: 3.3.7 => /opt/homebrew/Library/Homebrew/vendor/portable-ruby/3.3.7/bin/ruby
CPU: octa-core 64-bit arm_blizzard_avalanche
Clang: 16.0.0 build 1600
Git: 2.48.1 => /opt/homebrew/bin/git
Curl: 8.7.1 => /usr/bin/curl
macOS: 14.7-arm64
CLT: 16.1.0.0.1.1729049160
Xcode: N/A
Rosetta 2: false

What were you trying to do (and why)?

I am trying to install a vendored (deprecated) formula from a local tap with a script in the Brewfile. The entire brewfile looks like this:

system "brew tap-new project/temp"
system "cp vendored/brew/xmlsec1.rb  $(brew --repository)/Library/Taps/project/homebrew-temp/Formula/libxmlsec1.rb"
brew "project/temp/libxmlsec1"

However, this now fails with the error:

sh: brew: command not found

This Brewfile was working until approximately yesterday or today. For some reason, the system command is no longer able to identify the brew command.

What happened (include all command output)?

❯ brew bundle --file=BrewfileEg
sh: brew: command not found
cp: /Library/Taps/project/homebrew-temp/Formula/libxmlsec1.rb: No such file or directory
Installing project/temp/libxmlsec1
Warning: 'project/temp/libxmlsec1' formula is unreadable: No available formula with the name "project/temp/libxmlsec1".
Please tap it and then try again: brew tap project/temp
==> Tapping project/temp
Cloning into '/opt/homebrew/Library/Taps/project/homebrew-temp'...
ERROR: Repository not found.
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.
Error: Failure while executing; `git clone https://github.com/project/homebrew-temp /opt/homebrew/Library/Taps/project/homebrew-temp --origin=origin --template= --config core.fsmonitor=false` exited with 128.
Installing project/temp/libxmlsec1 has failed!
`brew bundle` failed! 1 Brewfile dependency failed to install

What did you expect to happen?

I expected the system "brew tap-new project/temp" entry in the Brewfile to create a local tap, so that I can install a vendored formula into it for installation.

Step-by-step reproduction instructions (by running brew commands)

Create a Brewfile with the content:


system "brew tap-new project/temp"
system "cp vendored/brew/xmlsec1.rb  $(brew --repository)/Library/Taps/project/homebrew-temp/Formula/libxmlsec1.rb"
brew "project/temp/libxmlsec1"


Then attempt to install from the Brewfile:


brew bundle --file=Brewfile

[MikeMcQuaid]

@jarshwah Thanks for the report! I think this is pretty borderline in terms of relying on internal implementation details. If you use #{HOMEBREW_BREW_FILE} inside your Brewfile instead of brew, that may be a more reliable/robust workaround? Can you try it out?

[jarshwah]

I'm not sure I understand how that'd help (or what that does)? Can you elaborate or link to a doc explaining?

We're using system to call brew directly, and our real file does things like system "... brew --prefix" so we don't have to assume correct paths.

I suspect the issue here is that bundle is no longer respecting PATH. But, if there's a better way of installing local formulas then that'd be a much better solution for us.

[shihanng]

I see. I think HOMEBREW_BREW_FILE is a global variable that is exposed and can be called within Brewfile.

So the above Brewfile can be written as

system "#{HOMEBREW_BREW_FILE} tap-new project/temp"
system "cp vendored/brew/xmlsec1.rb  #{HOMEBREW_REPOSITORY}/Library/Taps/project/homebrew-temp/Formula/libxmlsec1.rb"
brew "project/temp/libxmlsec1"

The documentation that I can find is https://rubydoc.brew.sh/top-level-namespace.html but it has the following warning

This constant is part of a private API. This constant may only be used in the Homebrew/brew repository. Third parties should avoid using this constant if possible, as it may be removed or changed without warning.

[Bo98]

Running tap-new every time the Brewfile is read (not even just installed!) definitely seems very much unideal. Definitely seems like an alternative solution altogether is desired here.

[jarshwah]

It is very much not ideal - and if folks have a way of detecting if it's installed or not I'd be happy to change it. But, it's also besides the point, I reduced the file down to the smallest reproducible version. The point is that system "brew ..." no longer works as of a few days ago.

This is part of an entire local dev environment setup, and there does not appear to be a way to detect if a local tap is created or not without either parsing stdout, since I couldn't find a brew command that would confirm if a tap was installed or not with return codes.

Here's (most) of the actual Brewfile, recently changed with the full path to brew and removing things like brew --repository:

system "/opt/homebrew/bin/brew tap-new project/temp >/dev/null 2>&1"

unless system "/opt/homebrew/bin/brew ls openssl@1.1 >/dev/null 2>&1"
    system "cp vendored/brew/openssl@1.1.rb /opt/homebrew/Library/Taps/project/homebrew-temp/Formula/openssl@1.1.rb"
    puts "Installing openssl@1.1"
    brew "project/temp/openssl@1.1"
end

unless system "/opt/homebrew/bin/brew ls libxmlsec1 >/dev/null 2>&1"
    system "cp vendored/brew/xmlsec1.rb /opt/homebrew/Library/Taps/project/homebrew-temp/Formula/libxmlsec1.rb"
    puts "Installing libxmlsec1"
    brew "project/temp/libxmlsec1"
    system "/bin/ln -sf libxmlsec1 /opt/homebrew/opt/libxmlsec1@1.2.37"
end

brew "project/temp/openssl@1.1"
brew "project/temp/libxmlsec1"
brew "automake"
# etc

[MikeMcQuaid]

I see. I think HOMEBREW_BREW_FILE is a global variable that is exposed and can be called within Brewfile.

So the above Brewfile can be written as

system "#{HOMEBREW_BREW_FILE} tap-new project/temp"
system "cp vendored/brew/xmlsec1.rb #{HOMEBREW_REPOSITORY}/Library/Taps/project/homebrew-temp/Formula/libxmlsec1.rb"
brew "project/temp/libxmlsec1"

Yup, this is correct.

The documentation that I can find is rubydoc.brew.sh/top-level-namespace.html but it has the following warning

This constant is part of a private API. This constant may only be used in the Homebrew/brew repository. Third parties should avoid using this constant if possible, as it may be removed or changed without warning.

Thanks for pointing this out @shihanng! I've opened #19569 to make this (and some other variables) a public API and improve their documentation.