pkgconf doesn't seem to upgrade pkg-config, even if installed as pkg-config

[saurik]

brew gist-logs <formula> link OR brew config AND brew doctor output

$ brew config

HOMEBREW_VERSION: 4.4.6-49-g8d30564
ORIGIN: https://github.com/Homebrew/brew
HEAD: 8d3056463df31187969e7088f2fe18cb65ca06d6
Last commit: 6 hours ago
Core tap HEAD: 664566eb377176e726d091c5d162044b9238bf9c
Core tap last commit: 22 minutes ago
Core tap JSON: 25 Nov 02:13 UTC
Core cask tap HEAD: ec6970082ab34a10a698d0a66da18e0fef9b2cf9
Core cask tap last commit: 68 minutes ago
Core cask tap JSON: 25 Nov 02:13 UTC
HOMEBREW_PREFIX: /opt/homebrew
HOMEBREW_CASK_OPTS: ["--no-quarantine"]
HOMEBREW_COLOR: set
HOMEBREW_MAKE_JOBS: 3
HOMEBREW_NO_AUTO_UPDATE: set
HOMEBREW_NO_INSTALL_CLEANUP: set
HOMEBREW_SORBET_RUNTIME: set
Homebrew Ruby: 3.3.6 => /opt/homebrew/Library/Homebrew/vendor/portable-ruby/3.3.6/bin/ruby
CPU: 3-core 64-bit dunno
Clang: 15.0.0 build 1500
Git: 2.47.0 => /opt/homebrew/bin/git
Curl: 8.7.1 => /usr/bin/curl
macOS: 14.7.1-arm64
CLT: 16.1.0.0.1.1729049160
Xcode: 15.4 => /Applications/Xcode_15.4.app/Contents/Developer
Rosetta 2: false

$ brew doctor

Your system is ready to brew.

Verification

• My brew doctor output says Your system is ready to brew. and am still able to reproduce my issue.
• I ran brew update and am still able to reproduce my issue.
• I have resolved all warnings from brew doctor and that did not fix my problem.
• I searched for recent similar issues at https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/issues?q=is%3Aissue and found no duplicates.

What were you trying to do (and why)?

I wanted to install pkgconf and seamlessly replace pkg-config.

What happened (include all command output)?

$ brew install pkgconf

==> Downloading https://ghcr.io/v2/homebrew/core/pkgconf/manifests/2.3.0_1
==> Fetching pkgconf
==> Downloading https://ghcr.io/v2/homebrew/core/pkgconf/blobs/sha256:5f83615f295e78e593c767d84f3eddf61bfb0b849a1e6a5ea343506b30b2c620
==> Pouring pkgconf--2.3.0_1.arm64_sonoma.bottle.tar.gz
Error: The `brew link` step did not complete successfully
The formula built, but is not symlinked into /opt/homebrew
Could not symlink bin/pkg-config
Target /opt/homebrew/bin/pkg-config
is a symlink belonging to pkg-config@0.29.2. You can unlink it:
  brew unlink pkg-config@0.29.2
To force the link and overwrite all conflicting files:
  brew link --overwrite pkgconf
To list all files that would be deleted:
  brew link --overwrite pkgconf --dry-run
Possible conflicting files are:
/opt/homebrew/bin/pkg-config -> /opt/homebrew/Cellar/pkg-config@0.29.2/0.29.2_3/bin/pkg-config
/opt/homebrew/share/aclocal/pkg.m4 -> /opt/homebrew/Cellar/pkg-config@0.29.2/0.29.2_3/share/aclocal/pkg.m4
/opt/homebrew/share/man/man1/pkg-config.1 -> /opt/homebrew/Cellar/pkg-config@0.29.2/0.29.2_3/share/man/man1/pkg-config.1
==> Summary
🍺  /opt/homebrew/Cellar/pkgconf/2.3.0_1: 27 files, 474.1KB
Error: Process completed with exit code 1.

But, also...

$ brew install pkg-config

==> Downloading https://ghcr.io/v2/homebrew/core/pkgconf/manifests/2.3.0_1
==> Fetching pkgconf
==> Downloading https://ghcr.io/v2/homebrew/core/pkgconf/blobs/sha256:5f83615f295e78e593c767d84f3eddf61bfb0b849a1e6a5ea343506b30b2c620
==> Pouring pkgconf--2.3.0_1.arm64_sonoma.bottle.tar.gz
Error: The `brew link` step did not complete successfully
The formula built, but is not symlinked into /opt/homebrew
Could not symlink bin/pkg-config
Target /opt/homebrew/bin/pkg-config
is a symlink belonging to pkg-config@0.29.2. You can unlink it:
  brew unlink pkg-config@0.29.2
To force the link and overwrite all conflicting files:
  brew link --overwrite pkgconf
To list all files that would be deleted:
  brew link --overwrite pkgconf --dry-run
Possible conflicting files are:
/opt/homebrew/bin/pkg-config -> /opt/homebrew/Cellar/pkg-config@0.29.2/0.29.2_3/bin/pkg-config
/opt/homebrew/share/aclocal/pkg.m4 -> /opt/homebrew/Cellar/pkg-config@0.29.2/0.29.2_3/share/aclocal/pkg.m4
/opt/homebrew/share/man/man1/pkg-config.1 -> /opt/homebrew/Cellar/pkg-config@0.29.2/0.29.2_3/share/man/man1/pkg-config.1
==> Summary
🍺  /opt/homebrew/Cellar/pkgconf/2.3.0_1: 27 files, 474.1KB

What did you expect to happen?

Either of these commands to work... certainly the second ;P.

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

I am not sure this is possible as I'm not sure how to install the old version of pkg-config...

[saurik]

#194885

Homebrew/brew#18788

apache/arrow#44797

[Bo98]

pkg-config@0.29.2 is not from us. Assuming this is GitHub Actions: it's some third-party thing the GitHub did which seems to have ended up breaking their images given the reports we've seen. I think they've fixed it but you'll need to check with GitHub when that's rolling out - presumably within the next couple days.

A workaround could be to uninstall that custom package, which should return you to a more vanilla install.

[cho-m]

Corresponding GitHub fix actions/runner-images#11015