How can I add a cask that is not an app, dmg, or package?

[nik312123]

Output of brew config

N/A

Output of brew doctor

N/A

Description of issue

I would like advice on Homebrew expectations for a cask in which the app is not self contained in just a .app file, does not have a dmg installation, and does not have a package installation. This example does not appear to be mentioned here.

In my specific instance, for example, the release can be obtained from GitHub as normal (e.g. https://github.com/[example-user]/[example-name]/releases/download/[example-release-filename].tar.gz).

Then, the contents of the directory created when extracting the archive (e.g. [example-release-filename]) are moved into a new folder in the /Applications directory (e.g. contents of [example-release-filename] moved to /Applications/[example-name]).

I would appreciate any advice regarding the preferred way to do this in Homebrew casks. Thank you!

[krehel]

Hi @nik312123 - if the extracted archive is a folder, you can use suite which will move the folder to /Applications - you can look at Chemdoodle as an example.

If the archive is files only, I believe you can take a look at Chatty as an example which uses a preflight block to move files to a staging location first and then invokes suite to add to /Applications

Hope this helps.

[nik312123]

Chatty's case is exactly what I needed! Though, in my instance, I used FileUtils.mv(...) to rename the directory to remove the version information before moving it into /Applications (e.g. FileUtils.mv(staged_path.join("[example-path-with-version-information]"), staged_path.join("[example]"))).

[krehel]

Glad you were able get it working! 😄