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How To Contribute

So you want to contribute to the project. THIS IS GREAT NEWS! Seriously. We're all pretty happy about this. Here's how to get started:

Getting Set Up To Contribute

  1. Fork the repository in GitHub with the 'Fork' button
  2. Add your GitHub fork as a remote for your homebrew-cask Tap
$ github_user='<my-github-username>'
$ cd "$(brew --prefix)"/Library/Taps/phinze-cask
$ git remote add "$github_user" "https://github.com/$github_user/homebrew-cask"

Adding a Cask

Making a Cask is easy: a Cask is a small Ruby file.

Examples

Here's a Cask for Alfred.app as an example. Note that you may repeat the link stanza as many times as you need, to create multiple links:

class Alfred < Cask
  url 'http://cachefly.alfredapp.com/Alfred_2.1.1_227.zip'
  homepage 'http://www.alfredapp.com/'
  version '2.1.1_227'
  sha256 'd19fe7441c6741bf663521e561b842f35707b1e83de21ca195aa033cade66d1b'
  link 'Alfred 2.app'
  link 'Alfred 2.app/Contents/Preferences/Alfred Preferences.app'
end

Here is another Cask for Vagrant.pkg:

class Vagrant < Cask
  url 'https://dl.bintray.com/mitchellh/vagrant/Vagrant-1.4.3.dmg'
  homepage 'http://www.vagrantup.com'
  version '1.4.3'
  sha256 'e7ff13b01d3766829f3a0c325c1973d15b589fe1a892cf7f857da283a2cbaed1'
  install 'Vagrant.pkg'
  uninstall :script => { :executable => 'uninstall.tool', :input => %w[Yes] }
end

Naming the Cask

We try to maintain consistent naming for the benefit of our users.

The Cask name is the string people will use to interact with the Cask via brew cask install, brew cask search, etc. The Cask file is simply the Cask name with the extension .rb appended.

The easiest way to name a Cask is to run this command:

$ "$(brew --prefix)/Library/Taps/phinze-cask/developer/bin/cask_namer" '/full/path/to/new/software.app'

If the software you wish to Cask is not installed, or does not have an associated App bundle, just give the full proper name of the software instead of a pathname:

$ "$(brew --prefix)/Library/Taps/phinze-cask/developer/bin/cask_namer" 'Google Chrome'

If the cask_namer script does not work for you, see Cask Naming Details.

The brew cask create Command

Once you know the name for your Cask, create it with the handy-dandy brew cask create command.

$ brew cask create my-new-cask

This will open $EDITOR with a template for your new Cask. Hyphens in the Cask name indicate case-changes in the class name, so the Cask name 'my-new-cask' becomes class MyNewCask stored in file my-new-cask.rb. Running the create command above will get you a template that looks like this:

class MyNewCask < Cask
  url ''
  homepage ''
  version ''
  sha256 ''
  link ''
end

Cask Stanzas

Fill in the following stanzas for your Cask:

name value
cask metadata information about the Cask (required)
url URL to the .dmg/.zip/.tgz file that contains the application (see also URL Stanza Details)
homepage application homepage; used for the brew cask home command
version application version; give value of 'latest' if versioned downloads are not offered
sha256 SHA-256 checksum of the file downloaded from url, calculated by the command shasum -a 256 <file>. Can be omitted on unversioned downloads by substituting no_checksum. (see also Checksum Stanza Details)
artifact info information about artifacts inside the Cask (can be specified multiple times)
link relative path to a file that should be linked into the Applications folder on installation (see also Link Stanza Details)
install relative path to pkg that should be run to install the application (see also Install Stanza Details)
uninstall indicates what commands/scripts must be run to uninstall a pkg-based application (see also Uninstall Stanza Details)

Additional stanzas you might need for special use-cases:

name value
prefpane relative path to a preference pane that should be linked into the ~/Library/PreferencePanes folder on installation
colorpicker relative path to a ColorPicker plugin that should be linked into the ~/Library/ColorPickers folder on installation
qlplugin relative path to a QuickLook plugin that should be linked into the ~/Library/QuickLook folder on installation
font relative path to a font that should be linked into the ~/Library/Fonts folder on installation
widget relative path to a widget that should be linked into the ~/Library/Widgets folder on installation (ALPHA: DOES NOT WORK YET)
service relative path to a service that should be linked into the ~/Library/Services folder on installation
binary relative path to a binary that should be linked into the /usr/local/bin folder on installation
input_method relative path to a input method that should be linked into the ~/Library/Input Methods folder on installation
screen_saver relative path to a Screen Saver that should be linked into the ~/Library/Screen Savers folder on installation
nested_container relative path to an inner container that must be extracted before moving on with the installation; this allows us to support dmg inside tar, zip inside dmg, etc.
caveats a string or Ruby block providing the user with Cask-specific information at install time (see also Caveats Details)

Even more special-use stanzas are listed at Optional Stanzas and Legacy Stanzas.

SourceForge URLs

SourceForge projects are a common way to distribute binaries, but they provide many different styles of URLs to get to the goods.

We prefer URLs of this format:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/$PROJECTNAME/files/latest/download

This lets the project maintainers choose the best URL for download.

If the "latest" URL does not point to a valid file for a Mac app, then we fall back to this format:

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/$PROJECTNAME/$FILENAME.$EXT

Vendor URLs

When possible, it is best to use a download URL from the original developer or vendor, rather than an aggregator such as macupdate.com.

Cask Naming Details

If a Cask name conflicts with an already-existing Cask, authors should manually make the new Cask name unique by prepending the vendor name. Example: unison.rb and panic-unison.rb.

If possible, avoid creating Cask names which differ only by the placement of hyphens.

To name a Cask manually, or to learn about exceptions for unusual cases, see CASK_NAMING_REFERENCE.md.

Archives With Subfolders

When a downloaded archive expands to a subfolder, the subfolder name must be included in the link value.

Example:

  • Texmaker is downloaded to the file TexmakerMacosxLion.zip.

  • TexmakerMacosxLion.zip unzips to a folder called TexmakerMacosxLion.

  • The folder TexmakerMacosxLion contains the application texmaker.app.

  • So, the link stanza should include the subfolder as a relative path:

    link 'TexmakerMacosxLion/texmaker.app'

Indenting

All Casks and code in the homebrew-cask project should be indented using two spaces (never tabs).

Testing Your New Cask

Give it a shot with brew cask install my-new-cask

Did it install? If something went wrong, brew cask uninstall my-new-cask and edit your Cask to fix it.

If everything looks good, you'll also want to make sure your Cask passes audit with

brew cask audit my-new-cask --download

If your application and homebrew-cask do not work well together, feel free to file an issue after checking out open issues.

Finding a Home For Your Cask

We maintain separate Taps for different types of binaries.

Latest Stable Versions

Latest stable versions live in the main repository at phinze/homebrew-cask. Software in the main repo should run on the latest release of OS X or the previous point release (currently: Mavericks and Mountain Lion).

But There Is No Stable Version!

When an App is only available as a Beta, or in cases where a "Beta" has become the general standard, then an "unstable" version can go into the main repo.

Unstable, Development, or Legacy Versions

When an App already exists in the main repo, alternate versions can be Casked and submitted to caskroom/homebrew-versions. Nightly builds always go in caskroom/homebrew-versions.

Unofficial Builds

When an App developer does not offer a binary download, please submit the Cask to caskroom/homebrew-unofficial. For a location to host unofficial builds, contact our sister project alehouse.

Fonts

Font Casks live in the caskroom/homebrew-fonts repository. See the font repo CONTRIBUTING.md for details.

Submitting Your Changes

Hop into your Tap and check to make sure your new Cask is there:

$ cd "$(brew --prefix)"/Library/Taps/phinze-cask
$ git status
# On branch master
# Untracked files:
#   (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
#
#       Casks/my-new-cask.rb

So far, so good. Now make a feature branch that you'll use in your pull request:

$ git checkout -b my-new-cask
Switched to a new branch 'my-new-cask'

Stage your Cask with git add Casks/my-new-cask.rb. You can view the changes that are to be committed with git diff --cached.

Commit your changes with git commit -v.

Commit Messages

For any git project, some good rules for commit messages are

  • the first line is commit summary, 50 characters or less,
  • followed by an empty line
  • followed by an explanation of the commit, wrapped to 72 characters.

See a note about git commit messages for more.

The first line of a commit message becomes the title of a pull request on GitHub, like the subject line of an email. Including the key info in the first line will help us respond faster to your pull.

For Cask commits in the homebrew-cask project, we like to include the Application name, version number, and purpose of the commit in the first line.

Examples of good, clear commit summaries:

  • Add Transmission.app v1.0
  • Upgrade Transmission.app to v2.82
  • Fix checksum in Transmission.app Cask

Examples of difficult, unclear commit summaries:

  • Upgrade to v2.82
  • Checksum was bad

Pushing

Push your changes to your GitHub account:

$ github_user='<my-github-username>'
$ git push "$github_user" my-new-cask

Filing a Pull Request on GitHub

Now go to your GitHub repository at https://github.com/my-github-username/homebrew-cask, switch branch to your topic branch and click the 'Pull Request' button. You can then add further comments to your pull request.

Congratulations! You are done now, and your Cask should be pulled in or otherwise noticed in a while.

Squashing

If your pull request has multiple commits which revise the same lines of code, it is better to squash those commits together into one logical unit.

But you don't always have to squash -- it is fine for a pull request to contain multiple commits when there is a logical reason for the separation.

Cleaning up

After your Pull Request is away, you might want to get yourself back onto master, so that brew update will pull down new Casks properly.

cd "$(brew --prefix)"/Library/Taps/phinze-cask
git checkout master

Neat and tidy!

Working On homebrew-cask Itself

If you'd like to hack on the Ruby code in the project itself, please see HACKING.md.

<3 THANK YOU! <3