117 lines
5.2 KiB
Markdown
117 lines
5.2 KiB
Markdown
# Acceptable Formulae
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Some formulae should not go in
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[homebrew/core](https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core). But there are
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additional [Interesting Taps & Forks](Interesting-Taps-&-Forks.md) and anyone can start their
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own!
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### We try hard to avoid dupes in Homebrew/homebrew
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Stuff that comes with macOS or libraries that are provided by
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[RubyGems, CPAN or PyPi](Gems,-Eggs-and-Perl-Modules.md)
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should not be duplicated. There are good reasons for this:
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* Duplicate libraries regularly break builds
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* Subtle bugs emerge with duplicate libraries, and to a lesser extent,
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duplicate tools
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* We want our formulae to work with what comes with macOS
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There are exceptions:
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* OpenSSL - Apple has formally deprecated OpenSSL on macOS in favour of their own Security Framework
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& consequently the macOS OpenSSL is rarely updated and frequently falls behind important security updates.
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Homebrew endeavours to use our shipped OpenSSL as much
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as possible.
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* Programs that a user will regularly interact with directly, like editors and
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language runtimes
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* Libraries that provide functionality or contain security updates not found in
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the system version
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* Things that are **designed to be installed in parallel to earlier versions of
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themselves**
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#### Examples
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Formula | Reason
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--- | ---
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ruby, python, perl | People want newer versions
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bash | macOS's bash is stuck at 3.2 because newer versions are licensed under GPLv3
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zsh | This was a mistake, but it’s too late to remove it
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emacs, vim | [Too popular to move to dupes](https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/pull/21594#issuecomment-21968819)
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subversion | Originally added for 10.5, but people want the latest version
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libcurl | Some formulae require a newer version than macOS provides
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openssl | macOS's openssl is deprecated & outdated.
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libxml2 | Historically, macOS's libxml2 has been buggy
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We also maintain [a tap](https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-dupes) that
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contains many duplicates not otherwise found in Homebrew.
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### We don’t like tools that upgrade themselves
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Software that can upgrade itself does not integrate well with Homebrew's own
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upgrade functionality.
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### We don’t like install-scripts that download things
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Because that circumvents our hash-checks, makes finding/fixing bugs
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harder, often breaks patches and disables the caching. Almost always you
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can add a resource to the formula file to handle the
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separate download and then the installer script will not attempt to load
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that stuff on demand. Or there is a command line switch where you can
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point it to the downloaded archive in order to avoid loading.
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### We don’t like binary formulae
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Our policy is that formulae in the core repository
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([homebrew/core](https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core)) must be open-source
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and either built from source or produce cross-platform binaries like e.g. Java).
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Binary-only formulae should go to
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[Homebrew Cask](https://github.com/caskroom/homebrew-cask).
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### Stable versions
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Formulae in the core repository must have a stable version tagged by
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the upstream project. Tarballs are preferred to git checkouts, and
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tarballs should include the version in the filename whenever possible.
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Software that only provides a development/beta, tagged version should be put in
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[homebrew/devel-only](https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-devel-only).
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We don’t accept software without a tagged version because they regularly break
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due to upstream changes; we can’t provide [bottles](Bottles.md) for them; and
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we don’t have an automatic update mechanism for `head-only` formulae which
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makes them very quickly outdated.
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### Bindings
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First check that there is not already a binding available via
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[`gem`](https://rubygems.org/) or [`pip`](http://www.pip-installer.org/)
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etc..
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If not, then put bindings in the formula they bind to. This is more
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useful to people. Just install the stuff! Having to faff around with
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foo-ruby foo-perl etc. sucks.
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### Niche (or self-submitted) Stuff<a name="Niche_Stuff"></a>
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The software in question must be
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* maintained (e.g. upstream is still making new releases)
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* known
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* stable (e.g. not declared "unstable" or "beta" by upstream)
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* used
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* have a homepage
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We will reject formulae that seem too obscure, partly because they won’t
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get maintained and partly because we have to draw the line somewhere.
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We frown on authors submitting their own work unless it is very popular.
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Don’t forget Homebrew is all `git` underneath! Maintain your tap if you have to!
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There may be exceptions to these rules in the main repository, we may
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include things that don't meet these criteria or reject things that do.
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Please trust that we need to use our discretion based on our experience
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running a package manager.
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### Stuff that builds an .app
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Don’t make your formula build an `.app` (native macOS Application); we
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don’t want those things in Homebrew (but
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[Homebrew Cask](https://github.com/caskroom/homebrew-cask) does).
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Make it build a command-line tool or a library.
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### Sometimes there are exceptions
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Even if all criteria are met we may not accept the formula.
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Documentation tends to lag behind current decision-making. Although some
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rejections may seem arbitrary or strange they are based from years of
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experience making Homebrew work acceptably for our users.
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