Homebrew path_helper file /etc/paths.d/homebrew has wrong permissions

[mbertschler]

• your problem was from running the official install or uninstall script?
• you carefully read the output and it was not a git fetch or other connection issue to GitHub (that Homebrew has no control over)?
• after installation: ran brew config and brew doctor and included their output with your issue? If you couldn't install: provided your OS version with the output of your issue?

% brew config
HOMEBREW_VERSION: 4.5.8
ORIGIN: https://github.com/Homebrew/brew
HEAD: c19f08b3e8ea46ba94bd9315c46c0dda10ead31c
Last commit: 12 days ago
Branch: stable
Core tap JSON: 05 Jul 16:14 UTC
Core cask tap JSON: 05 Jul 16:14 UTC
HOMEBREW_PREFIX: /opt/homebrew
HOMEBREW_CASK_OPTS: []
HOMEBREW_MAKE_JOBS: 14
Homebrew Ruby: 3.4.4 => /opt/homebrew/Library/Homebrew/vendor/portable-ruby/3.4.4/bin/ruby
CPU: 14-core 64-bit arm_brava
Clang: 17.0.0 build 1700
Git: 2.39.5 => /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin/git
Curl: 8.7.1 => /usr/bin/curl
macOS: 15.5-arm64
CLT: 16.4.0.0.1.1747106510
Xcode: N/A
Rosetta 2: false

% brew doctor
Your system is ready to brew.

What you were trying to do (and why)

Use homebrew and installed tools as usual.

What happened (include command output)

When opening any new shell, I got the following warning consistently:

path_helper: homebrew: Permission denied

Running brew doctor was something I tried but didn't fix it.

What you expected to happen

No homebrew specific warning in every new shell.

Step-by-step reproduction instructions (by running brew commands)

I installed homebrew with the from the website:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Open a new shell, for example in Terminal.app.

Workaround fix

I was able to remove the warning by running

sudo chmod 644 /etc/paths.d/homebrew

Workaround fix

I was able to remove the warning by running

sudo chmod 644 /etc/paths.d/homebrew

The homebrew path helper might get installed with too narrow permissions. For example the (probably preinstalled with macOS, since this is a new mac) 10-cryptex helpter also has 644 permissions

% ls -hal
-rw-r--r--   1 root  wheel   224B May  4 07:39 10-cryptex
-rw-r-----   1 root  wheel    18B Jul  5 18:17 homebrew

% sudo chmod 644 /etc/paths.d/homebrew

% ls -hal
-rw-r--r--   1 root  wheel   224B May  4 07:39 10-cryptex
-rw-r--r--@  1 root  wheel    18B Jul  5 18:17 homebrew

[mbertschler]

thanks for the quick fix @gromgit and @carlocab ! 🙏🏼