Consolidate Aliases, formula_renames.json, cask_renames.json and tap_migrations.json into single file.

[reitermarkus]

Verification

• This issue's title and/or description do not reference a single formula e.g. brew install wget. If they do, open an issue at https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/issues/new/choose instead.

Provide a detailed description of the proposed feature

All of these are handled by Formulary or CaskLoader, so it makes sense to merge all of these into a single file, e.g migrations.json.

Aliases and renames are handled almost identically in code, so it is kind of weird that one is loaded from a directory structure while the other is loaded from a JSON file. An alias is basically a rename without a warning.

What is the motivation for the feature?

Simplify code used for loading formulae/casks.

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

Easier management of aliases/renames/migrations. Only relevant to maintainers: Allows simplifying the code for handling all these.

What alternatives to the feature have been considered?

Alternatively, only get rid of Aliases in favour of a JSON file so that at least we don't have different ways of loading similar data.

[apainintheneck]

There's already some work to combine those as a part of #16410. That project started off with trying to speed up JSON loading and then became about JSON file size (smaller files can be loaded faster) and finally we've started the process to create a new JSON format. The plan is for each JSON file to represent a tap so all of the tap migrations and renames will be folded into the same file.

Only one PR has been merged so far and it handles creating the file for formulae but the loader code is something I need to work on next. We're currently generating and signing the file on CI but there is still the possibility of changes and/or us deciding that any network/performance improvements are not worth the added complexity. So early days, we'll see how it goes.

• Next gen api formula json v3 #16541

[MikeMcQuaid]

All of these are handled by Formulary or CaskLoader, so it makes sense to merge all of these into a single file, e.g migrations.json.

This seems like a nice idea. The main issue I see is that archived repositories aren't going to update these files probably ever so we'll need to keep two code paths around forever.

The plan is for each JSON file to represent a tap so all of the tap migrations and renames will be folded into the same file.

Yeh, this feels like the best way to handle this 👍🏻. For most users: they won't have these taps tapped at all so won't even use this code path.

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

N/A

Please fill this out, thanks.

[reitermarkus]

we'll need to keep two code paths around forever

Why would archived repos be exempt from deprecation forever?

[MikeMcQuaid]

@reitermarkus It is nice to not break existing repos migrations.

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs.

[MikeMcQuaid]

Keeping this open but let's scope it purely to the new internal JSON API.