Annotate formula with a --note keyword

[vsheg]

Provide a detailed description of the proposed feature

brew install should provide functionality to annotate formulas and casks with a --note keyword:

$ brew install --cask --note LaTeX latexit

Also, a note can be added to an existing formula or cask:

$ brew upgrade --note LaTeX ghostscript

Then this annotation can be used to understand installation reason

$ brew list
==> Formulae
gcc
ghostscript [1]
[email protected]

⟹ Casks
latexit [1]

[1] LaTeX

Or to uninstall all formulas and casks annotated with it

$ brew uninstall --note LaTeX

What is the motivation for the feature?

1. The number of installed formulas can be very large. It's hard to remember which formulas are needed, which are not and can be removed. The user loses control of their formulas.
2. When switching to a new computer, I had to spend hours sorting out the formulas that I want to install on it, and which ones I don't need (I know how to check dependencies).
3. Some formulas are needed only to do a specific task one time, they can be annotated as --note tmp and then easy deleted

How will the feature be relevant to at least 90% of Homebrew users?

This feature is relevant for 100% of Homebrew users, it's not something one needs to use every day, but it can provide organization for the working environment and bring clarity.

What alternatives to the feature have been considered?

1. Tags — even more powerful, but more complicated abstraction
2. Isolated environments — same, but solves only the "install, use, uninstall" problem

[issyl0]

When switching to a new computer, I had to spend hours sorting out the formulas that I want to install on it, and which ones I don't need (I know how to check dependencies).

You might be interested in Homebrew/homebrew-bundle and the resulting Brewfile. You can leave comments in that file for why you have the packages installed, and migrating to a new computer is less manual work. (But, of course, it doesn't solve your "why is this dependency installed" question.)

[carlocab]

Similarly, you might be interested in

brew uses --installed

and

brew autoremove

Do brew help uses and brew help autoremove for details.

[vsheg]

@issyl0 @carlocab thank you, I think it solves 85% of my problems but still think that annotations may be useful and can be used in Brewfiles

Also, as feedback for Brewfiles, I would expect it works like a Python's poetry environment (or Rust's cargo, R's renv), i.e., any brew install (update, remove, etc.) will update Brewfile, so, Brewfile determines the environment in a current scope. As I understand, now, the way to work with it, it's just run brew bundle dump -f and brew bundle cleanup -f from time to time

[apainintheneck]

Also, as feedback for Brewfiles, I would expect it works like a Python's poetry environment (or Rust's cargo, R's renv), i.e., any brew install (update, remove, etc.) will update Brewfile, so, Brewfile determines the environment in a current scope. As I understand, now, the way to work with it, it's just run brew bundle dump -f and brew bundle cleanup -f from time to time

There has been some discussion about adding those features to brew bundle in Homebrew/Homebrew-Bundle#818 but it looks like they have stalled out. I think the main thing is that since it is an optional brew subcommand there is no interest in modifying the behavior of brew install/uninstall directly though we are open to the idea of adding more options to brew bundle that allow you to install and add to your Brewfile for example.

[MikeMcQuaid]

Passing on this, sorry. Will consider additions to Homebrew/homebrew-bundle#818 but note that we're not working on a PR for that so if you want to see it happen: you'll likely need to make one.