Homebrew formula crashes on Intel macOS (x86_64) - missing URL

[nabilfreeman]

Summary

The Homebrew formula at schpet/tap/linear crashes with an unhelpful error when installed on Intel macOS (x86_64-apple-darwin), because no URL is defined for this platform combination.

Error Message

$ brew install schpet/tap/linear
Error: schpet/tap/linear: formula requires at least a URL

Root Cause

Looking at the formula in homebrew-tap/Formula/linear.rb, the URL is only set for:

• ✅ macOS ARM (aarch64-apple-darwin)
• ❌ macOS Intel (x86_64-apple-darwin) - missing
• ✅ Linux ARM (aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu)
• ✅ Linux Intel (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu)

The formula structure:

if OS.mac? && Hardware::CPU.arm?
  url "https://github.com/schpet/linear-cli/releases/download/v1.4.0/linear-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.xz"
  # ...
end
if OS.linux?
  # linux variants handled...
end
# No case for OS.mac? && Hardware::CPU.intel?

Who This Affects

This affects users running Intel Homebrew on macOS, which includes:

1. Users on Intel Macs
2. Users on Apple Silicon Macs running the Intel version of Homebrew (via Rosetta 2) - this is common for compatibility with certain packages

Suggested Solutions

Option A: Add Intel macOS (x86_64-apple-darwin) to the release builds. This would provide full macOS coverage.

Option B: If Intel macOS support isn't planned, add an explicit error in the formula:

if OS.mac? && Hardware::CPU.intel?
  odie "linear-cli does not provide Intel macOS binaries. Please use ARM Homebrew on Apple Silicon, or install via deno: deno install -A -g -n linear jsr:@schpet/linear-cli"
end

This would give users a clear message instead of a cryptic "formula requires at least a URL" error.

Environment

• macOS 15.7.2
• Homebrew 4.x (Intel, /usr/local)
• brew install schpet/tap/linear at commit 9a4b2d9

[schpet]

@nabilfreeman sorry about that! i removed x86 in a ham fisted attempt to fix arm, but i think a7e1137 / 86a5809 and the 1.5.0 may resolve that. whenever CI finishes, ~10 mins or so, the tap should be updated and hopefully fixes this.

[nabilfreeman]

Thanks for the quick fix! The formula now correctly provides the x86_64-apple-darwin URL, but there's a new issue - the Intel macOS binary appears to be broken:

$ brew install schpet/tap/linear
🍺  /usr/local/Cellar/linear/1.5.0: 7 files, 159.6MB, built in 4 seconds

$ linear --version
error: Could not find standalone binary section.

$ file /usr/local/bin/linear
/usr/local/bin/linear: Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64

The error "Could not find standalone binary section" is typically a Deno compile issue where the JavaScript payload wasn't properly embedded into the binary.

The ARM binary (v1.4.0) worked fine for us - so the issue is specifically with the x86_64-apple-darwin binary build process in v1.5.0.

Our specific situation is ARM Mac running Intel Homebrew (for compatibility).

I think this is a pretty niche scenario, and the usage of Intel Macs is only diminishing, so maybe it's ok to just add the specific error message excluding Intel Macs and call it a day on Intel 😄

[schpet]

@nabilfreeman oof sorry! i'll check this out later. it might just be that i flag it in the readme, as the builds are done through cargo-dist and might require changing that (which i do not wish to do). i'm anticipating github removing the x86 CI machines at some point too, but i imagine the deno based install should get it working as an alternative.

[nabilfreeman]

@schpet sure, I think you know best. Just also want to say thanks for creating this - it's a lot smoother to use in my agent workflows than the Linear MCP.