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How to get my tool on Homebrew ?

Hello guys,

I have been working on a tool for months now, and we are currently preparing a paper to release it officially, so I need help to figure out how to make the tool available on homebrew for easy installation for users. I haven't done this before, so I am bit confused. Instructions on homebrew manual isn't so clear. Did anyone here did this before? I would really appreciate a some tips to get me started.

Thank you so much

homebrew pipeline
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updated by Ram Ram • written by Elephantdumbo • Elephantdumbo

Maybe too late, maybe irrelevant... But have you considered submitting your program to bioconda instead? I think (bio)conda is more popular than homebrew in bioinformatics and the users of your program get the benefits of the conda ecosystem like separate environments and tons of packages already available.

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written by dariober dariober

I only used biconda once. It also seems like a really good idea to have it there. Thank you. I will consider it after homebrew

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written by Elephantdumbo • Elephantdumbo

1 answer

You will have to create a pull-request at the homebrew-bio repository with a new formula which details how your software is installed. You can read the guide here: https://github.com/brewsci/homebrew-bio/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md which links to this cookbook: https://docs.brew.sh/Formula-Cookbook.html

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written by Philipp Bayer Philipp Bayer

Thanks for your response. I am bit confused what is foo formula exactly ?

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written by Elephantdumbo • Elephantdumbo

foo is a placeholder for the software name, so if you wanted to create a new package called 'readAligner' you'd run 

brew create https://whatever_your_host_is/readAligner-v1.0.0.tar.gz
# this will create something like /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-core/Formula/readAligner.rb
# edit that file, changing the name on the top to what it should be (let's say readAligner)
brew install --build-from-source readAligner
# this is the hardest part, does the installation work? If not, see whether you should add any dependencies to readAligner.rb as detailed in the cookbook
brew audit --new-formula foo

Then make a new commit with the format as required like `readAligner 1.0.0 (new formula)' , then open a PR, and see whether the automated tests fail

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written by Philipp Bayer Philipp Bayer

Thank you so much for your help . I will be working on that during the weekend. I will reply to this if i am stuck on something. Thank you!

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written by Elephantdumbo • Elephantdumbo

so I have a question now. My pipeline uses some packages from r. How can i install it using the formula code ? can brew install these r packages as a dependency ?

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written by Elephantdumbo • Elephantdumbo

so i am getting this message. I dont really understand. What does that mean ? I also cant find a README as the cookbook suggests. Also why didnt it add the tool to my $PATH

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written by Elephantdumbo • Elephantdumbo

Hmmm looking at the entire log, not just the last 15 lines may be more useful

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written by Philipp Bayer Philipp Bayer

does my gzip need to have something special ? I just have my subscripts and the bash file that runs the pipeline ?

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written by Elephantdumbo • Elephantdumbo

how does the full 01.configure file look like?

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written by Philipp Bayer Philipp Bayer

oh. this is the file. it only produce it when i use brew install without interactive mode

2019-07-07 01:38:38 -0400

./configure --disable-debug --disable-dependency-tracking --disable-silent-rules --prefix=/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Cellar/repeat-test/1.1

HOMEBREW_VERSION: 2.1.6-44-g895467a ORIGIN: https://github.com/Homebrew/brew HEAD: 895467ad9f57a9245c36def26abca729f2559fbb Last commit: 4 days ago Core tap ORIGIN: https://github.com/Homebrew/linuxbrew-core Core tap HEAD: 8fc90f9949f42879aed819b772e737ec50d59e9c Core tap last commit: 29 hours ago HOMEBREW_PREFIX: /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew HOMEBREW_CACHE: /home/sherif/.cache/Homebrew HOMEBREW_LOGS: /home/sherif/.cache/Homebrew/Logs CPU: dodeca-core 64-bit skylake Homebrew Ruby: 2.5.1 => /usr/bin/ruby2.5 Clang: N/A Git: 2.17.1 => /usr/bin/git Curl: 7.58.0 => /usr/bin/curl Kernel: Linux 4.4.0-18932-Microsoft x86_64 GNU/Linux OS: Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS (bionic) Host glibc: 2.27 /usr/bin/gcc: 7.4.0 glibc: N/A gcc: 5.5.0_4 xorg: 20170115_1

HOMEBREW_CC: gcc-5 HOMEBREW_CXX: g++-5 MAKEFLAGS: -j12 CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH: /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew HOMEBREW_GIT: git ACLOCAL_PATH: /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/share/aclocal

PATH:/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/shims/linux/super:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/opt/gcc/bin

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written by Elephantdumbo • Elephantdumbo

What happens if you run 

./configure --disable-debug --disable-dependency-tracking --disable-silent-rules --prefix=/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Cellar/repeat-test/1.1

in the --interactive mode?

The --interactive mode itself doesn't do much, if you look at the cookbook it says that this mode is there for you to manually run through the installation steps to see what breaks

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written by Philipp Bayer Philipp Bayer

so now I am confused. Is the problem in my formula or the command i run with ?

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written by Elephantdumbo • Elephantdumbo

Maybe both?

You can try running

brew install --verbose --debug repeat-test

which will run through the whole installation without your manual input.

brew  install --interactive repeat-test

won't install the package, but will put you into a sandbox where all of your specified prerequisites are downloaded, so you can walk through the installation manually, step by step. What happens if you run the ./configure step in the interactive mode?

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written by Philipp Bayer Philipp Bayer

so i was able to deal with the errors i guess and it now installs and work correctly, but i have a question. When i release new updates to my tool in the future how will i update the formula on hombrew itself do i have to do a pull request every time ? I am confused about this process

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written by Elephantdumbo • Elephantdumbo

I was able to install the formula with no error but when i audit i get this 1 error. why cant i put .R in the bin ? I modified my main bash script to look for them there and it works. . How can i get the path of the rest of the files then ? I cant seem to find a good idea to link the main bash scripts with the subscripts ?

https://ibb.co/PCWnRwH

_______update:

I was able to find a way but now i am wondering what if i want to release update 1.1 do i just point the main bash script to 1.1 instead of 1.0 folder ? I think this is a way to do it but is it "professional and clean " ?

I would really appreciate your insight

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written by Elephantdumbo • Elephantdumbo

You make a formula for 1.0 and submit that, later you can submit a pull request for 1.1 with a new version of the same formula

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written by Philipp Bayer Philipp Bayer

oh Thanks. I ran the brew audit --strict --online and i got no errors and when i ran your brew audit --new-formula i got the github not notable error, but people on brew github said to ignore it, and the installed formula work as intended. I am set like this right ? However sometimes i get this error https://ibb.co/TW2sTpD ,but i fix it by running the suggested command. It is not a problem in the formula itself, right ?

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written by Elephantdumbo • Elephantdumbo

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