Caskbrew upgrade upgrades casks that have auto update built in since brew 6.

[hurgaburga]

Output of brew config

HOMEBREW_VERSION: 6.0.2
ORIGIN: https://github.com/Homebrew/brew
HEAD: 686144996e76cda071d5829d1c180704dd271fc3
Last commit: 7 days ago
Branch: stable
Core tap JSON: 22 Jun 05:18 UTC
Core cask tap JSON: 22 Jun 05:18 UTC
HOMEBREW_PREFIX: /opt/homebrew
HOMEBREW_BAT_THEME: Visual Studio Dark+
HOMEBREW_CASK_OPTS: []
HOMEBREW_DOWNLOAD_CONCURRENCY: 20
HOMEBREW_FORBID_PACKAGES_FROM_PATHS: set
HOMEBREW_MAKE_JOBS: 10
HOMEBREW_NO_ENV_HINTS: 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_hidra
Clang: 21.0.0 build 2100
Git: 2.50.1 => /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin/git
Curl: 8.7.1 => /usr/bin/curl
macOS: 26.5.1-arm64
CLT: 26.5.0.0.1777544298
Xcode: N/A
Rosetta 2: false

Output of brew doctor

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Warning: Some installed formulae are deprecated or disabled.
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Description of issue

Since upgrading to 6 caks get upgraded with brew upgrade, even those casks that have auto udpate built in, like bettertouchtool or codex-app.

Relevant casks

bettertouchtool

[bevanjkay]

This is now the expected behaviour. Upgrade will proceed for a cask with auto_updates, only after a comparison is made between the version currently installed on your system and the latest version in Homebrew. If the upgrade has already been completed by the in-app updater, Homebrew should leave it alone.

If this is not what you see happen, please open an issue with specifics about the application that does not follow this behaviour. (What version was installed, and what was it updated to).

[botantony]

@matkozak you can set HOMEBREW_NO_UPGRADE_AUTO_UPDATES_CASKS in your environment

[matkozak]

Thank you!

[bevanjkay]

I think it's worth clarifying that there is still a difference between the default behaviour and the --greedy flag. Running brew upgrade will only include a cask with auto_updates true if we can detect that the currently installed version is older than the latest version in the homebrew-cask tap. If the application has already updated itself, it will be left alone unless you pass the --greedy or --greedy-auto-updates flag.

[g-a-c]

That may be true in some cases - but in the case of something like Vivaldi, if the app has updated by itself but is pending a restart, then brew upgrade was still seeing it as outdated and quitting the app on me. Yes, it's ultimately on me for not checking the list of upgrades before agreeing and then I could have seen Vivaldi in the list and restarted it myself, or just brew upgraded things individually that aren't Vivaldi so that my browsing session wasn't interrupted, etc. But that seems like a long-winded workaround to fix a problem that previously didn't exist and (IMO) didn't really need to exist. Even after you've explained the difference, I still don't really see why this couldn't have stayed purely opt-in using the --greedy flag and its associated environment variables, but I am at least happy that I can opt-in to get my preferred behaviour back.

[bevanjkay]

If the application is being upgraded by Homebrew after it has already upgraded itself, then it's likely an edge case with the way the version comparison occurs. This is unexpected behaviour, so I'll take a look it.

Unless the Chromium-based applications don't actually replace the application in the appdir until they are restarted, then there's not much that can be done to improve the comparison.

[g-a-c]

Is there a way to opt out of this new behaviour? Or some way to make it not terminate processes? I was personally very happy with the previous behaviour where auto-updating apps (like Vivaldi, VS Code) just show me a "there is an update" button that I could push when it was convenient. Meanwhile, I could still brew upgrade whenever I wanted because that would only do apps that wouldn't update themselves.

[g-a-c]

Also I think the context of this discussion means that the pinned post (https://github.com/orgs/Homebrew/discussions/3359) needs to be unpinned because I don't believe it is accurate advice anymore:

If the auto_updates information inside the cask is correct brew upgrade will not attempt to update that cask unless you pass --greedy, in which case it will override the version.

[g-a-c]

In fact, I don't really see the need for this behaviour change at all, given that there was already the --greedy flag and environment variable so that people who wanted this new behaviour could have had it. Whereas now, it seems that people who don't want it have no way to not have it. I have at least found out about --no-quit today which may be less annoying for apps like Vivaldi/VSCode for me personally.

[injust]

This new behaviour leads to https://github.com/domt4/homebrew-autoupdate breaking running apps. For example, this happens with Chrome if you haven't restarted to install the latest update. Homebrew will update it for you, but after that happens, opening any new tab will immediately crash.

[injust]

I don't believe you can pass --no-quit or HOMEBREW_NO_UPGRADE_AUTO_UPDATES_CASKS=1 to homebrew-autoupdate, either.

DomT4/homebrew-autoupdate#236 for autoupdate to support one of the above.