`briefcase build` on macOS should allow for packaging console apps as Homebrew formulae in addition to `.pkg` files.

[glyph]

What is the problem or limitation you are having?

A majority of macOS developers install their tools through Homebrew these days, but Briefcase deploys to a .pkg file that would be hosted on their own website. While the latter is required in some contexts, the former is what is generally culturally expected among most users of command-line tools.

Describe the solution you'd like

I would like briefcase build to be able to produce one of two outputs:

1. A repository that could be pushed to github.com/(org)/homebrew-(tap) to allow for deployment to a tap, so brew tap (org)/(tap); brew install (package) will get users the deployed artifact
2. A pull request that could be integrated into https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core so that brew install (package) would work without a tap.

Describe alternatives you've considered

I can write my own formulae but that requires learning a bunch of stuff which Briefcase could potentially prevent me from learning.

Additional context

Even famously-insular apple has noticed that Homebrew is where developers go to find their tools. When they needed to package their Game Porting Toolkit, the frontend to this was a Homebrew formula: https://github.com/apple/homebrew-apple/ When they released their first-party container tool, one of the first requests was "put it in Homebrew please" apple/container#74 - and they did, even though it was already a signed .pkg, it still required a Homebrew frontend to behave as developers wanted.

Another advantage of distributing through Homebrew is that the CLI app participates in the usual update workflow, without requiring any code of its own to do so.

Packaging a Python application as a Homebrew formula is relatively simple, per https://docs.brew.sh/Python-for-Formula-Authors , and can be done without getting an apple code-signing certificate, but still presents brew install whatever; whatever --help as the expected culturally-legible interface for getting the "whatever" CLI tool installed on one's system, independent of its language of implementation.

[freakboy3742]

Agreed this could be a useful mode of deployment for macOS apps.

I imagine a homebrew backend for macOS would look a lot like the system backend for Linux, except with Homebrew-specific packaging instructions, and without the Docker-specific extensions.