Install from api: is it safe to delete local core/cask git repo?

[daviehh]

Following the recent 3.3.0 update, I'm interested in trying out the HOMEBREW_INSTALL_FROM_API flag. After setting it in .zshrc, is it now safe to remove the local homebrew core and cask repos (e.g. /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-core) to save disk space? Thanks!

[Rylan12]

Yep! This is exactly why we created HOMEBREW_INSTALL_FROM_API!

You can uninstall by running brew untap homebrew/core and brew untap homebrew/cask.

Please note that this is still a very new feature so there's a chance that some minor issues may occur. If you run into anything weird or have any feedback, please let us know by opening an issue or discussion.

[grantbarrett]

When I uninstall, I get the message Refusing to untap homebrew/core because it contains the following installed formulae or casks with a list. Is there a way to indicate that those items should now be affiliated with the API?

[Rylan12]

Thanks for the report! This will be fixed by Homebrew/brew#12346

[tlk]

@Rylan12 This looks very promising, much appreciated!

I just experimented with it and it looks like its working :-)

% brew update; brew upgrade
% brew developer on; brew update; brew upgrade; brew developer off   # upgrade brew command to 3.3.1-47-gdae9a34
% HOMEBREW_INSTALL_FROM_API=1 brew untap homebrew/cask
% HOMEBREW_INSTALL_FROM_API=1 brew untap homebrew/core
% HOMEBREW_INSTALL_FROM_API=1 brew cleanup
% HOMEBREW_INSTALL_FROM_API=1 brew autoremove
% HOMEBREW_INSTALL_FROM_API=1 brew install hello
% HOMEBREW_INSTALL_FROM_API=1 brew uninstall hello

All the above appeared to work out well, assuming my guesswork makes sense.

I did notice something surprising, the spotify cask is being upgraded every time I run brew upgrade. That didn't happen earlier, I'm pretty sure. Not sure if that is related?

% brew upgrade
==> Casks with 'auto_updates true' or 'version :latest' will not be upgraded; pass `--greedy` to upgrade them.
==> Upgrading 1 outdated package:
spotify latest -> latest
==> Upgrading spotify
 ..

[Rylan12]

Thanks, @tlk. If you don't mind, can you report this as a bug by opening an issue in Homebrew/brew?

We were having some similar issues a while back but I thought I had fixed it. Either way, someone else reported a similar issue so I think you're not alone. I'm looking into it but it may take some time to solve.

[Rylan12]

I just released Homebrew 3.3.2 which contains fixes for the original problem. Now, brew untap homebrew/core should work as expected, even if you have formulae installed already.

The release also contains a handful of other fixes so hopefully, some other issues that people were encountering won't occur anymore. As always, feel free to keep reporting new issues. If it's a bug, feel free to go ahead and report directly to Homebrew/brew via GitHub issues.

[grantbarrett]

Thank you for this fix.