So you have a private Git repository. Doesn’t matter if it’s in GitHub, GitLab, or some dusty server you have in a shelf.
And you want to install whatever’s in it using Homebrew, but you don’t want to make your repository public.
Well, here’s how!
1. Add a formula to your repository
When you do brew install foo, “foo” is a formula.
A formula is a set of instructions for installing a package.
You can create a formula with a Ruby file like this:
# foo.rb # CHANGEME: rename to "[formula].rb", where "[formula]" is "brew install [formula]"
class Foo < Formula # CHANGEME: rename "Foo" to "[formula]", in CamelCase
desc "A foo-rmula, haha... sorry" # CHANGEME: you probably want something useful here, not my stupid jokes
homepage "https://example.com/foo" # CHANGEME
url "git@example.com:path/to/repo.git", :using => :git, :tag => "v1.0.0" # CHANGEME
def install
bin.install "foo" # CHANGEME
end
test do
system "true" # CHANGEME
end
end
Here’s a reference with all the arguments explained in detail.
Put this file in the root of your private Git repository.
2. Add your repository as a tap
A tap is an external repository, a place full of formulas. When you added your formula to your Git repository, it became a tap.
You can point Homebrew to your private tap like:
$ brew tap example/tap git@example.com:path/to/repo.git
Here’s where the first bit of magic happens.
We’re telling brew to install your tap at git@.../repo.git.
This means, it’ll use git to pull your repository, to then look for formulas.
Therefore, you must have access to your repository, otherwise it’ll fail.
In other words, if you can git clone a repo, you can use it as a tap.
3. Install your formula
Now that we’ve added your tap, you can install your formula:
$ brew install foo
And here’s where the second bit of magic happens.
When you do this, brew will download your package from the url in our formula file above.
In our formula, we told brew to use git again, to pull git@.../repo.git at tag v1.0.0.
