Should Microsoft casks really depend on microsoft-auto-update?

[tadamcz]

Output of brew config

NA

Output of brew doctor

NA

Description of issue

All Microsoft casks depend on microsoft-auto-update, as you can see here: https://github.com/search?q=org%3AHomebrew++depends_on+cask%3A+%22microsoft-auto-update%22&type=code

This sort of thing seems odd to me -- isn't the whole point of Homebrew to handle applications and their updates centrally?

Is there a particular reason it's been done this way?

(btw, microsoft-auto-update requires sudo every time you upgrade it with brew upgrade, and presumably also when you install it)

Relevant casks

microsoft-teams

[SMillerDev]

This sort of thing seems odd to me -- isn't the whole point of Homebrew to handle applications and their updates centrally?

Yes, but Microsoft doesn't optimise their software for Homebrew installs so it requires their updater.

[tadamcz]

So, the main application won't work at all without the updater? What would happen if you installed and ran it?

[SMillerDev]

I'm not sure, you can try uninstalling it. But I'm pretty sure the dependency would be omitted if everything worked fine without it.

[cbean]

Tested for years now, the package microsoft-auto-update can be uninstalled afterwards. Just use:

brew uninstall microsoft-auto-update

[rkourdis]

Tangentially related; how does brew knows to use sudo when installing microsoft-auto-update or, for example, microsoft-teams? I'm looking at the formulae for both and there's nothing about the installer requiring root.

EDIT: Looking at this code it seems that all .pkg installs need sudo. That would make sense, if correct. Apologies for the naive question, I've only recently started using Mac.

[p-linnane]

You're correct. .pkg installers use sudo.

[gh10ltz]

is there any way at all we can break the dependency here apart from immediately brew uninstall microsoft-auto-update after an office package upgrade? this is so frustrating and intrusive

[p-linnane]

You can open a PR to try and remove the dependency.

[gh10ltz]

Doesn't seem like I can open a PR for this. @EricFromCanada is this something you could please review?

[gh10ltz]

@krehel would you be able to get this change added?

[SMillerDev]

Please don't tag random maintainers. Anyone can make pull requests, and it's the only way to request changes in Homebrew

[gh10ltz]

These aren't random maintainers. These are the individuals who are typically handling cask updates.

[elgs]

I run brewall everyday.

alias brewdeps="brew deps --installed --tree"
alias brewup="brew upgrade --greedy"
alias caskup="brew upgrade --cask --greedy"
alias brewcl="brew cleanup -s && rm -rf \$(brew --cache)"
alias brewrm-msupdate="brew uninstall microsoft-auto-update"
alias brewall="brewup && caskup && brewcl && brewrm-msupdate"

[bevanjkay]

Feel free to open a PR to remove the dependency from the microsoft-* casks - it likely isn't required.

[gh10ltz]

Yep... I run something similar:

  _do_cleanup() {
    _run env HOMEBREW_NO_AUTO_UPDATE=1 brew cleanup --prune=all || return 1
    if _run env HOMEBREW_NO_AUTO_UPDATE=1 brew list --cask microsoft-auto-update &>/dev/null; then
      _run env HOMEBREW_NO_AUTO_UPDATE=1 brew uninstall microsoft-auto-update
      echo "Microsoft AutoUpdate uninstalled, proceeding with related cleanup..."
      sudo sh -c '
        rm -f /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.microsoft.office.*.plist;
        chflags nouchg /Library/LaunchDaemons /Library/LaunchAgents;
        chflags uchg /Library/LaunchDaemons /Library/LaunchAgents;
        def="/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Defender/uninstall/uninstall";
        [ -x "$def" ] && "$def";
        rm -rf "/Applications/Microsoft Defender.app";
      '
    fi
  }

So wasteful and useless. At no point in time was this garbage ever a necessary dep and there is no reason why it should be still. How more people aren't complaining about this (especially given the LaunchAgent and LaunchDaemon plists installed) is beyond me...

[bevanjkay]

Again, you're more than welcome to open a PR to make the changes.

[gh10ltz]

Thanks Bevan. Sadly, my GH account is considered "unverified" and as a result I'm quite limited in what I am able to do on it. Perhaps someone else can squeeze this through.