Add support for custom options/flags

[mkouhia]

Take Firefox cask for an example; brew cask install firefox will install en-US version of Firefox by default. Could there be some switch to install different version of the program?

To install the British English version user could do something like

brew cask install firefox --lang en-GB

[passcod]

Currently you can very dirtily hack it in (CAUTION: ugliness) but I can imagine making this easier (ignoring unknown flags would be a start, placing them in Cask#flags or something would be better). Anyway, here's the hack:

class Firefox < Cask
  lang = ARGV.grep(/^\./).first.sub(/^\./,'')

  url "http://download.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/17.0.1/mac/#{lang}/Firefox%2017.0.1.dmg"
  homepage "http://www.mozilla.org/#{lang}/firefox/"
  version '17.0.1'
end

$ brew cask info firefox .fr_FR
# Because it works OK and there won't
# be a cask that starts with a dot.

firefox: 17.0.1
http://www.mozilla.org/fr_FR/firefox/
Not installed
https://github.com/phinze/cask/commits/master/Casks/firefox.rb

Error: No available cask for .fr_FR

Such a hack will never ever make it in the official Casks, of course, but you're welcome to use it in a tap.

[mkouhia]

Thanks for the hack; that'll be handy in some occasions!

[ioerror]

How would the hash be checked for the different downloads in this case?

[passcod]

I think it would be possible with a simple switch/conditional.

[ioerror]

How would you like to see it happen, I think might be a better question? :)

I'd like to add Tor Browser's next release for every language and ensure that every hash is in the cask - so I'm open to helping make this happen.

[phinze]

We've matured well beyond this point - we have plenty of solutions for the various cases that would cause a Cask author to want to add a flag. A general facility for Cask-specific flags is unlikely to make it in because of the difficulty in maintaining Casks with that much variance.

So given that, I'm closing this for now - anybody that feels strongly can feel free to petition for reopening. 👌 👂

[vitorgalvao]

Well, in regards to language flags, I do see them as useful. Maintaining separate casks in caskroom/versions is cumbersome and requires a bunch of work that sometimes even leaves some of the versions outdated. Consolidation into a single cask could really help with this.

[phinze]

@vitorgalvao ah good call - agreed. I think we should either open a fresh thread for that feature or rename this issue before reopening; I've always tracked this one as "Casks get to define their own flags". I think if we want to support a new flag we should do it first-class in core.

[vitorgalvao]

Sounds good. I always find it better to open new issues, as we can start with an explanation of what we already know/decided without the baggage of the discussion about how we got there. Would you care to do it?

[januz]

sorry, so is there already a mechanism to select a different language for Firefox than en-US?

[radeksimko]

@JanuZz See homebrew-versions and 26 versions of Firefox:
https://github.com/caskroom/homebrew-versions/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=firefox

Available for installation via brew cask install caskroom/homebrew-versions/%CASK_NAME%