Deprecate mackup formula due to potential for silent loss of data #181706
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mackup
works by moving config files to an off-disk backup location (usually a cloud storage provider like iCloud or Dropbox, etc.) and then replacing the original file with a symlink to the backed up version. The intended use is to make sure program configuration settings and preferences can be restored if you need to replace computers, factory reset, etc.As documented here, here, here, and other mentions through the project repo and related repos,
mackup backup
no longer works on MacOS Sonoma (possibly due to security changes in the app sandbox in Sonoma) and running the command will result in the loss of all preference files. Users who backup to a storage provider that has versioning or backup snapshots may be able to restore preferences to an older version but will need to manually move the files back sincemackup restore
will fail for the same reason as thebackup
command. For users backing up to other storage providers that do not have a versioning or snapshot feature, such as iCloud, running the backup command results in total data loss. This issue has been known to the developer for over a year but there is no fix, no mention of the issue in the project README, no warning when running the command, and no indication in the program output that the backup process ran into an error.HOMEBREW_NO_INSTALL_FROM_API=1 brew install --build-from-source <formula>
, where<formula>
is the name of the formula you're submitting?brew test <formula>
, where<formula>
is the name of the formula you're submitting?brew audit --strict <formula>
(after doingHOMEBREW_NO_INSTALL_FROM_API=1 brew install --build-from-source <formula>
)? If this is a new formula, does it passbrew audit --new <formula>
?