container formula appears to be broken

[skyzyx]

Output of brew config

HOMEBREW_VERSION: 5.1.15-249-g528537d
ORIGIN: https://github.com/Homebrew/brew
HEAD: 528537d4ce5cb2ef5a1f3fbaab5599c2c7779c71
Last commit: 6 hours ago
Branch: main
Core tap: N/A
Core cask tap: N/A
HOMEBREW_PREFIX: /opt/homebrew
HOMEBREW_BAT_THEME: Monokai Extended Bright
HOMEBREW_CASK_OPTS: []
HOMEBREW_DOWNLOAD_CONCURRENCY: 20
HOMEBREW_EDITOR: code -w
HOMEBREW_FORBID_PACKAGES_FROM_PATHS: set
HOMEBREW_MAKE_JOBS: 10
HOMEBREW_NO_ANALYTICS: set
HOMEBREW_REQUIRE_TAP_TRUST: set
Homebrew Ruby: 4.0.5 => /opt/homebrew/Library/Homebrew/vendor/portable-ruby/4.0.5_1/bin/ruby
CPU: deca-core 64-bit arm_firestorm_icestorm
Clang: 21.0.0 build 2100
Git: 2.54.0 => /opt/homebrew/bin/git
Curl: 8.7.1 => /usr/bin/curl
macOS: 26.6-arm64
CLT: 27.0.0.0.1780650213
Xcode: 26.5
Metal Toolchain: N/A
Rosetta 2: false

Output of brew doctor

Please note that these warnings are just used to help the Homebrew maintainers
with debugging if you file an issue. If everything you use Homebrew for is
working fine: please don't worry or file an issue; just ignore this. Thanks!

Warning: Some installed casks are deprecated or disabled.
You should find replacements for the following casks:
  gdisk
  gstreamer-runtime
  makemkv

Warning: Some installed kegs have no formulae!
This means they were either deleted or installed manually.
You should find replacements for the following formulae:
  tflint

Warning: Some installed formulae are deprecated or disabled.
You should find replacements for the following formulae:
  icu4c@75
  icu4c@77

Warning: Unbrewed dylibs were found in /usr/local/lib.
If you didn't put them there on purpose they could cause problems when
building Homebrew formulae and may need to be deleted.

Unexpected dylibs:
  /usr/local/lib/libASAF.dylib
  /usr/local/lib/libmetalirconverter.dylib
  /usr/local/lib/libwkhtmltox.0.12.6.dylib

Warning: Unbrewed header files were found in /usr/local/include.
If you didn't put them there on purpose they could cause problems when
building Homebrew formulae and may need to be deleted.

Unexpected header files:
  /usr/local/include/metal_irconverter/*
  /usr/local/include/metal_irconverter_runtime/*
  /usr/local/include/wkhtmltox/*

Warning: Unbrewed '.la' files were found in /usr/local/lib.
If you didn't put them there on purpose they could cause problems when
building Homebrew formulae and may need to be deleted.

Unexpected '.la' files:
  /usr/local/lib/libwebp.la
  /usr/local/lib/libwebpdecoder.la
  /usr/local/lib/libwebpdemux.la
  /usr/local/lib/libwebpmux.la

Warning: Some installed formulae or casks are missing dependencies.
You should `brew install` the missing dependencies:
  brew install icu4c

Run `brew missing` for more details.

Description of issue

container (brew info container) appears to be broken. Apple discussion.

Installation

$ brew install container
==> Would install 1 formula:
container
==> Downloading https://ghcr.io/v2/homebrew/core/container/manifests/1.0.0
Already downloaded: /Users/me/Library/Caches/Homebrew/downloads/a211821c5c2d053ade4aa639939eed3545f20eb1a107281c1fdc3886a5b0d223--container-1.0.0.bottle_manifest.json
==> Fetching downloads for: container
✔︎ Bottle container (1.0.0)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Downloaded   73.0MB/ 73.0MB
==> Pouring container--1.0.0.arm64_tahoe.bottle.tar.gz
==> /opt/homebrew/Cellar/container/1.0.0/libexec/ensure-container-stopped.sh -a
==> Caveats
To start container now and restart at login:
  brew services start container
Or, if you don't want/need a background service you can just run:
  /opt/homebrew/opt/container/bin/container system start
==> Summary
🍺  /opt/homebrew/Cellar/container/1.0.0: 20 files, 276.3MB
==> Running `brew cleanup container`...
Disable this behaviour by setting `HOMEBREW_NO_INSTALL_CLEANUP=1`.
Hide these hints with `HOMEBREW_NO_ENV_HINTS=1` (see `man brew`).
==> Caveats
Bash completion has been installed to:
  /opt/homebrew/etc/bash_completion.d

brew services start

$ brew services start container
==> Successfully started `container` (label: homebrew.mxcl.container)

brew services (status)

$ brew services
Name        Status   User    File
atuin       error  1 me      ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.atuin.plist
cloudflared none
colima      none
container   error  1 me      ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.container.plist
dnsmasq     error  3 root    ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.dnsmasq.plist
dolt        none
emacs       none
mlx-lm      none
podman      none
unbound     none
valkey      none

container system start

Per Apple's documentation:

$ container system start
Launching container-apiserver...
Testing access to container-apiserver...
Verifying machine API server is running...
Error: internalError: "failed to get a response from machine API server: internalError: "failed to list container machines" (cause: "interrupted: "XPC connection error: Connection invalid"")"
Ensure container system service has been started with `container system start`.

[kallookoo]

@skyzyx The service works correctly in itself.

The problem is that initially, when not exists the default kernel, ask and wait the user response.

There are two possible solutions in the formula (service) --enable-kernel-install or --disable-kernel-install or install container system kernel set --recommended the kernel before register the brew service.

[skyzyx]

That's helpful. Thank you.

Having said that, for the maintainers: this is not described in any of the post-installation text. How is a user expected to know this?

[SMillerDev]

It's somewhat documented by Apple, and the reason that Homebrew doesn't document it is because it's not specific to homebrew.

https://github.com/apple/container/blob/main/docs/command-reference.md#container-system-start

[skyzyx]

Respectfully, I would still assert that this is a poor overall user experience for this cask. Adding some kind of signpost to direct the user to more information would be a high-ROI patch.

[SMillerDev]

You're always welcome to make pull requests, but the requirements for caveats are that they are Homebrew specific