why was it decided that brew should now attempt to upgrade casks with auto_updates true? and how to disable this behavior?

[theAnuragMishra]

Output of brew config

HOMEBREW_VERSION: 6.0.9

Output of brew doctor

no warnings its clean

Description of issue

i don't like this new behaivor. I understand i can disable this by setting the environment variable HOMEBREW_NO_UPGRADE_AUTO_UPDATES_CASKS. should i just put it in my shell config? or is there a better way ?

Relevant casks

.

[bevanjkay]

Casks with auto_updates are only upgraded if the latest version in the tap is confirmed as being newer than the currently installed version. Previously they were skipped because there was no mechanism to know which version was actually installed on the system and now that we have a mechanism for this, we can upgrade applications if we have confidence that they haven't already been auto updated.

If you put export HOMEBREW_NO_UPGRADE_AUTO_UPDATES_CASKS=1 in your shell config you can opt out.

[bevanjkay]

I can't provide any specific re-assurance that brew upgrade will not cause data-loss/corruption on any Application that you have installed (regardless of whether auto_updates true is set).

To answer your query anecdotally, I would note the following;

• I don't recall seeing any previous issues regarding data-loss/corruption as a result of brew upgrade.
• App data generally doesn't live in the app bundle. On macOS it lives in ~/Library/Application Support, ~/Library/Preferences and ~/Library/Containers. Replacing the .app doesn't touch any of it. Sparkle, which most self-updating Mac apps use, also replaces the bundle. So a brew upgrade isn't structurally different from what the app's own updater already does to itself.
• Command event analytics shows that brew upgrade --greedy has been ran 300,000 times by users with analytics enabled in the last 30 days, which will forcibly upgrade all casks, without even doing the version comparison the new behaviour does.
• When running brew upgrade for Casks with an uninstall quit stanza, we attempt to safely close the application before the upgrade commences, and attempt to reopen it after it succeeds.
• You should consider that any brew upgrade invocation will modify your system. By default, we now ask for confirmation before proceeding with any upgrades, so you should know what is going to occur, and can close any applications that concern you before proceeding.

[p-linnane]

Adding onto @bevanjkay's comment: I don't think there's much distinction between software that has an auto-update mechanism and software that doesn't here. I would argue that most casks are not expected Homebrew to manage them, but the way that we do is all via macOS system commands.

Additionally, regarding assurances, please remember that Homebrew is licensed under BSD-2-Clause, which contains the following provision:

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS"
AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR
SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER
CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY,
OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

[sammko]

Hi @bevanjkay,

now that we have a mechanism for this

what is the mechanism? Clearly it doesn't determine the installed version, does it merely detect that the installed version is older than the up-to-date one, the version number notwithstanding?

$ brew info visual-studio-code
==> visual-studio-code ↑ (Microsoft Visual Studio Code, VS Code): 1.94.2 → 1.135.0 (auto_updates)

$ code --version
1.133.0

[bevanjkay]

It does detect the version that is installed on your system (it just doesn't show it in the output). The upgrade would proceed here because your installed version 1.133.0 is less than 1.135.0.

[masterflitzer]

would be good if brew info would show that it detected that v1.33.0 is installed instead or in addition to v1.94.2 which it shows (brew cache or whatever)

[p-linnane]

Docs will be updated by Homebrew/brew#23163.

[zhuoqun-chen]

Hi @p-linnane , is there any per cask toggle in brew bundle maintained *.Brewfile as well?

[p-linnane]

No, there isn't. Happy to review a PR adding this if you'd like.