Ecosyste.ms: Awesome

An open API service indexing awesome lists of open source software.

Awesome Lists | Featured Topics | Projects

https://github.com/andre4ik3/brew2nix

Homebrew casks using Nix
https://github.com/andre4ik3/brew2nix

homebrew homebrew-cask nix

Last synced: 21 days ago
JSON representation

Homebrew casks using Nix

Awesome Lists containing this project

README 

        
brew2nix

========



> [!CAUTION]

> **‼️ VERY EXPERIMENTAL ‼️**



A very experimental way of installing Homebrew casks via Nix, in a reproducible

way, and **without needing to have Homebrew installed.** It pulls its data from

[Homebrew's API][1] and transforms that into Nix packages.



The goal for this project is simple: if Homebrew is just being used to install

casks (either imperatively or via `nix-darwin`), this aims to replace it. This

makes updates and installations much easier and faster, since there's no need to

shell out to Homebrew, which is super slow due to Ruby and whatnot. Plus, the

casks become fully (mostly) reproducible, since they are versioned and locked

through the existing `flake.lock` system.



**Not all packages work:** only some `.zip` and `.dmg` packages will work. In

general, you can just try to build it using a command like the following and

see if it works (the app should be under `result/Applications`):



```bash

nix build github:andre4ik3/brew2nix#packages.aarch64-darwin.casks. -L

```



Non-exhaustive list of verified packages that work (tested personally):



- `arc`

- `iterm2`

- `firefox`

- `sketch`

- `zen-browser`

- `eloston-chromium`

- `orion`

- `proxyman`

- `hoppscotch`

- `iina`

- `whisky`

- `nova`

- `ia-presenter`

- `crystalfetch`

- `utm`

- `transmission`

- `transmit`

- `betterdisplay`

- ...probably most `.zip` and `.dmg` packages. Again, check using command above. (no need to install to check, just need Nix installed)



List of stuff that DOESN'T work:



- `apparency`, `suspicious-package`, `istat-menus@6` (No sha256 on the top-level download)

- `cleanshot` (`undmg` doesn't support its DMG filesystem)

- `bettertouchtool` (resources get modified for some reason)

- MS Office (`.pkg`)

- Pretty much anything that is `.pkg`

- `raycast`, `lagrange` (no file extension on downloaded file -- fix by detecting file type using file magic)

- Anything that hard-requires to be in `/Applications` (e.g. `little-snitch` or `secretive`)



Usage

-----



Add it as an input in your flake:



```nix

{

  inputs = {

    # ... other stuff ...

    brew2nix = {

      url = "github:andre4ik3/brew2nix";

      inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";

    };

    # ... other stuff ...

  };



  outputs = { ... }: {

    # ...

  };

}

```



Then add it as an overlay:



```nix

# assuming brew2nix is this exact flake, passed via specialArgs or something



{ brew2nix, pkgs }:



{

  nixpkgs.overlays = [ brew2nix.overlays.default ];



  # then, simply:

  environment.systemPackages = with pkgs.casks; [

    arc

    sketch

    iterm2

    proxyman

    # etc...

  ];



  # or, in home manager:

  home.packages = with pkgs.casks; [

    firefox

    iina

    utm

    transmit

    # etc...

  ];

}

```



Caveats

-------



- Apps trying to update themselves will fail. This is intentional, of course -- updates are exclusively managed via Nix.



To-Do

-----



- Currently the extraction is just a very simple script that uses unzip or undmg depending on the file extension.



- Almost no information from Homebrew is used. The script (see `package.nix`) simply finds `.app` files and moves them to an `Applications` directory.



- To make this "proper", essentially a small Homebrew re-implementation needs to be created. This re-implementation can then parse the cask JSON file, like Homebrew would, and move things to the correct places from data supplied from Homebrew, instead of just guessing.



- Instead of using `undmg`, it should use built-in macOS utilities (aka `hdiutil`).



- Some packages have separate `aarch64` and `x86_64` versions. Currently this isn't handled at all. I think `aarch64` is the default in most cases. I think.



- Quarantine maybe? Would it break reproducibility?



[1]: https://formulae.brew.sh/api/cask.json