Why "Your Command Line Tools are too outdated." over and over.

[joshgoebel]

Output of brew config

HOMEBREW_VERSION: 4.4.0-82-gc5fed58
ORIGIN: https://github.com/Homebrew/brew
HEAD: c5fed58345664b86d0b8ac82148097c62fc0b3ab
Last commit: 6 hours ago
Core tap HEAD: 04107c679bf31ef8c0da489be1bcfb8d61295a16
Core tap last commit: 35 minutes ago
Core tap JSON: 06 Oct 08:02 UTC
Core cask tap HEAD: cd1e72a09b52db79ca1329822340ce8c03345188
Core cask tap last commit: 4 hours ago
Core cask tap JSON: 06 Oct 08:02 UTC
HOMEBREW_PREFIX: /opt/homebrew
HOMEBREW_CASK_OPTS: []
HOMEBREW_MAKE_JOBS: 8
HOMEBREW_NO_ENV_HINTS: set
HOMEBREW_SORBET_RUNTIME: set
Homebrew Ruby: 3.3.5 => /opt/homebrew/Library/Homebrew/vendor/portable-ruby/3.3.5/bin/ruby
CPU: octa-core 64-bit arm_firestorm_icestorm
Clang: 15.0.0 build 1500
Git: 2.46.2 => /opt/homebrew/bin/git
Curl: 8.7.1 => /usr/bin/curl
macOS: 15.0-arm64
CLT: 15.3.0.0.1.1708646388
Xcode: 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: No Cask quarantine support available: unknown reason.

Warning: Your Command Line Tools are too outdated.
Update them from Software Update in System Settings.

If that doesn't show you any updates, run:
  sudo rm -rf /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools
  sudo xcode-select --install

Alternatively, manually download them from:
  https://developer.apple.com/download/all/.
You should download the Command Line Tools for Xcode 16.0.


Warning: Some installed formulae are deprecated or disabled.
You should find replacements for the following formulae:
  openssl@1.1

Description of issue

Despite following the suggested steps:

sudo rm -rf /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools
  sudo xcode-select --install

The version always installed is:

Apple clang version 15.0.0 (clang-1500.3.9.4)

Where-as for some reason homebrew (from reading source) expects (os/mac/xcode.rb):

        when "15" then "1600.0.20.10"

[carlocab]

Try following this:

Alternatively, manually download them from:
  https://developer.apple.com/download/all/.
You should download the Command Line Tools for Xcode 16.0.

[joshgoebel]

I wonder if we could update the error to say "if that fails" vs "alternatively"... the wording now makes it sound like both are equally valid choices that I should expect to succeed.

[aop]

My question regarding this is: How can the tools age like milk? Why is there not enough backwards compatibility so that you could, even for a short while, keep using the old version?

[SMillerDev]

Because there is no control over them from the Homebrew side, we simply don't know if you can keep using it. Sometimes Apple will replace or remove a tool without notice, and sometimes nothing happens.

However, at all times it is reported by a tool that has the following preface for a reason:

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!

[carlocab]

Why is there not enough backwards compatibility so that you could, even for a short while, keep using the old version?

The warning already takes this into account. This isn't shown the second Apple releases a new version of the CLT; it gets shown once we've determined that the version you're running isn't going to work well with the one that we use in CI.