Homebrew - A Package Manager for macOS/Linux

Crafted by Megabyte Labs

An Ansible role that installs Homebrew (a package management system) on macOS and Linux systems

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Features
• Quick Start
• Supported Operating Systems
• Dependencies
  • Python
  • Galaxy Roles
  • Galaxy Collections
• Example Playbook
  • Real World Example
• Contributing
  • Affiliates
• License

Overview

This repository is the home of an Ansible role that installs Homebrew (a package management system) on macOS and Linux systems. Homebrew is a free and open-source software package management system that simplifies the installation of software on Apple's operating system macOS as well as Linux. The name is intended to suggest the idea of building software on the Mac depending on the user's taste.

Features

Ensures Homebrew is installed:

• Checks to make sure Homebrew is not already installed
• Installs Homebrew on macOS and Linux
• Ensures the .bashrc file correctly adds Homebrew to the PATH variable

Installs Homebrew packages:

• Ensures Homebrew and Homebrew packages are up-to-date
• Installs a configurable list of Homebrew packages (via the homebrew_packages variable)
• Ensures pre-installed Homebrew casks are up-to-date
• Installs a configurable list of Homebrew casks on macOS (via the homebrew_casks variable)

Quick Start

Looking to install Homebrew without having to deal with Ansible? Simply run the following command that correlates to your operating system:

Linux/macOS:

curl -sS https://install.doctor/homebrew | bash

Windows:

Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://install.doctor/homebrew?os=win'))

Important Note: Before running the commands above you should probably directly access the URL to make sure the code is legit. We already know it is safe but, before running any script on your computer, you should inspect it.

You can also check out Install Doctor. It is an app we created that can install any Ansible role with a one-liner. It has some other nifty features too like the ability to install binaries on-the-fly without requiring a password. However, if you would like to incorporate this role into an Ansible playbook (and customize settings) then please continue reading below.

Supported Operating Systems

The chart below shows the operating systems that we have tested this role on. It is automatically generated using the Ansible Molecule tests located in the molecule/ folder. There is CI logic in place to automatically handle the testing of Windows, macOS, Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS, Debian, and Archlinux. If your operating system is not listed but is a variant of one of the systems we test (i.e. a Debian-flavored system or a RedHat-flavored system) then it is possible that the role will still work.

OS Family	OS Version	Status	Idempotent	Tested On
ArchLinux	Latest	❌	❌	January 7th, 2022
CentOS	7	❌	❌	January 7th, 2022
CentOS	8	❌	❌	January 7th, 2022
CentOS Stream	8	❌	❌	January 7th, 2022
Debian	10 (Buster)	❌	❌	January 7th, 2022
Debian	11 (Bullseye)	❌	❌	January 7th, 2022
Debian	9 (Stretch)	❌	❌	January 7th, 2022
Fedora	33	❌	❌	January 7th, 2022
Fedora	34	❌	❌	January 7th, 2022
Fedora	35	❌	❌	January 7th, 2022
Ubuntu	18.04 (Bionic Beaver)	✅	❌	January 7th, 2022
Ubuntu	20.04 (Focal Fossa)	✅	❌	January 7th, 2022
Ubuntu	21.04 (Hirsute Hippo)	✅	❌	January 7th, 2022
Ubuntu	21.10 (Impish Indri)	✅	❌	January 7th, 2022
Windows	10	✅	❌	January 7th, 2022

What does idempotent mean? Idempotent means that if you run this role twice in row then there will be no changes to the system the second time around.

We spent a lot of time perfecting our CI configurations and build tools. If you are interested in learning more about how we perfected our process then you might find our Ansible common files and Ansible documentation repositories interesting. See the CONTRIBUTING.md guide for more details.

Dependencies

Most of our roles rely on Ansible Galaxy collections. Some of our projects are also dependent on other roles and collections that are published on Ansible Galaxy. Before you run this role, you will need to install the collection and role dependencies, as well as the Python requirements, by running:

if type poetry &> /dev/null; then poetry install --no-root; else pip3 install -r .config/assets/requirements.txt; fi
ansible-galaxy install -r requirements.yml

Alternatively, you can simply run bash .config/scripts/start.sh if you are new to Ansible and do not mind the development requirements also being installed. This is the easy way of making sure that everything works properly.

Python

Although the only tool necessary to run this play on a standard machine is Ansible (a Python package), we include several other Python dependencies that are required for specialized use cases and development. The table below details these packages:

Package	Description	Required
ansible	A configuration management system that can remotely configure computers	✔️
docker	Enables the capability of provisioning Docker containers with Ansible	✔️
python-vagrant	Required for provisioning Vagrant VMs	✔️
pywinrm	Required for provisioning Windows machines that are using WinRM	✔️
ansible-lint	Linting tool for Ansible files
ansibler	Custom tool used to generate advanced documentation (e.g. it generates the compatibility chart and some other charts)
black	Python file auto-formatter included in case project utilizes Python test scripts
blocklint	Linting tool that prevents certain words from entering the code base
flake8	Python linter that reports Python syntax and style errors
mod-ansible-autodoc	Custom fork of ansible-autodoc which allows us to auto-generate documentation based on comments in the role's YAML files
molecule	Test framework for Ansible
molecule-docker	Molecule plugin for provisioning Docker containers
molecule-vagrant	Molecule plugin for provisioning Vagrant VMs
pre-commit-hooks	Suite of tools useful for linting
proselint	Linter used to generate English-language improvements (used to improve documentation)
yamllint	Linter for YAML files that ensures proper syntax and styling is used

Galaxy Roles

Although most of our roles do not have dependencies, there are some cases where another role has to be installed before the logic can continue. At the beginning of the play, the Ansible Galaxy role dependencies listed in meta/main.yml will run. These dependencies are configured to only run once per playbook. If you include more than one of our roles in your playbook that have dependencies in common then the dependency installation will be skipped after the first run. Some of our roles also utilize helper roles directly from the task files which helps keep our main playbook (Gas Station) DRY.

The requirements.yml file contains a full list of the Ansible Galaxy dependencies required by this role (i.e. meta/main.yml role dependencies, helper roles, collections, etc.). For your convenience, a list of the role dependencies along with quick descriptions is below:

role_dependencies

Galaxy Collections

This role is dependent on multiple Ansible Galaxy collections. The collections along with a links to their source are listed below.

• 
• 

Example Playbook

With the dependencies installed, all you have to do is add the role to your main playbook. The role handles the become behavior so you can simply add the role to your playbook without having to worry about commands that should not be run as root:

- hosts: all
  roles:
    - professormanhattan.homebrew

If you are incorporating this role into a pre-existing playbook, then it might be prudent to copy the requirements outlined in pyproject.toml and requirements.yml to their corresponding files in the root of your playbook so you only have to worry about installing one set of requirements during future use. Note that the dependencies in pyproject.toml can be moved to the more traditional requirements.txt, if that is what you are currently using to track Python dependencies.

Real World Example

You can find an example of a playbook that incorporates this role in our main playbook (a.k.a. Gas Station). The playbook is an excellent example for someone learning how to use Ansible. It also incorporates a lot of well-thought out build tools that more advanced Ansible users can appreciate. And people who could care less about Ansible can also benefit from it because it allows you to more or less turn your computer (and network) into the ultimate development enivornment. The bottom line is that it is an awesome project that developers should know about!

Contributing

Contributions, issues, and feature requests are welcome! Feel free to check the issues page. If you would like to contribute, please take a look at the contributing guide.

Sponsorship

Dear Awesome Person,

I create open source projects out of love. Although I have a job, shelter, and as much fast food as I can handle, it would still be pretty cool to be appreciated by the community for something I have spent a lot of time and money on. Please consider sponsoring me! Who knows? Maybe I will be able to quit my job and publish open source full time.

Sincerely,

Brian Zalewski

Affiliates

Below you will find a list of services we leverage that offer special incentives for signing up for their services through our special links:

License

Copyright © 2020-2021 Megabyte LLC. This project is MIT licensed.