feat(brew): use sudo if Homebrew owned by another user on Linux #904
Conversation
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Hi, have you checked this answer of question How to use Homebrew on a Multi-user MacOS Sierra Setup, looks like the officially suggested way to share Homebrew with multiple users is to install the core globally and then install a clone locally, so that |
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Hi, thanks for joining me here, and pointing out an alternative approach. Unfortunately, it uses nonstandard "prefix" directories, which causes recompilation of the packages in the best case, and failure to install in the worst case. There is a comment about such issues: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/41840479/how-to-use-homebrew-on-a-multi-user-macos-sierra-setup/55021458#comment133690270_55021458 This is also mentioned in the FAQ: https://docs.brew.sh/FAQ#why-should-i-install-homebrew-in-the-default-location When it comes to using sudo, there is an FAQ entry: https://docs.brew.sh/FAQ#why-does-homebrew-say-sudo-is-bad It implicitly refers to running Homebrew as root, not to any sudo usage. The last sentence suggests creating a dedicated role account and using sudo to switch. Or maybe my interpretation is wrong... |
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Hi, thanks for the detailed explanation! So IIUC, sharing the same insatllaction of Homebrew with multiple users is basically unsupported and not suggested? |
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Yes, that's what I understand. |
SteveLauC
changed the title
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Get it, the idea makes sense to me. |
The current impl looks generally good, so I think there is currently no need to do this. But we can do this when we have more steps that need this feature. Have you tried if Topgrade's |
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Thank you for reviewing the changes. The dry run appears to be working successfully: |
On Linux, run "brew update" with sudo if the Homebrew installation directory is owned by a different user. This is typically the user who installed Homebrew, but can also be a dedicated user account. This change ensures that Homebrew updates can proceed smoothly even when its directory ownership does not match the current user's UID. Proper sudo configuration is assumed for this to work properly.
NOTE: This is my first contact with Rust, and the implementation is surely suboptimal.
What does this PR do
Currently, on Linux, if the Homebrew installation directory is owned by a different user, the step fails.
Homebrew directory, which on Linux is
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/, is typically owned by the user who installed Homebrew, or a dedicated user account.This change ensures that Homebrew updates can proceed smoothly even when its directory ownership does not match the current user's UID. It accomplishes this by running the update command with
sudo, changing the UID to the proper owner account. Appropriate sudo configuration is assumed for this to work properly, for example:If this feature is acceptable, I am happy to work on the implementation further. Probably, the existing Sudo class would need extending to support providing the UID, to be reused when constructing the command. Any constructive criticism is highly welcome.
Standards checklist
CONTRIBUTING.md