brew-rs 🦀⚡

A package manager written in Rust. Faster than Homebrew, with SAT-based dependency resolution.

Why

Homebrew takes about a second just to print its version — that's Ruby interpreter startup. Downloads are sequential. Dependency resolution uses backtracking.

brew-rs is a compiled binary that starts in under 100ms, downloads packages in parallel, and resolves dependencies with a SAT solver (varisat). The trade-off is maturity: Homebrew has 15+ years of edge cases handled. brew-rs is in early development.

Performance targets

Metric	brew-rs target	Homebrew baseline
Command startup	<100ms	~1s (Ruby interpreter)
Dependency resolution	<100ms	Seconds (backtracking)
Parallel downloads	50+ concurrent	Sequential
Formula parsing	<1ms	~100ms (Ruby eval)
Update operations	<5s	~30-60s

What works

• Full build-from-source pipeline: download tarball, verify SHA-256, extract, configure/make/cmake, install to Cellar, symlink to ~/.local/bin
• Dependencies built first in topological order from the SAT resolver output
• Mirror fallback when primary download URL fails
• TOML formula format with validation (name, version, URLs, checksums)
• SAT-based dependency resolution (varisat) with semver constraints and conflict detection
• SQLite package database (WAL mode, migrations, install history)
• Git-based tap system with FTS5 full-text search
• CLI commands: init, install, search, list, tap (add/remove/update/list)
• 118 tests, including property-based fuzzing of the resolver

Roadmap

• Phase 1 (Weeks 1-4): Foundation -- done. brew-rs install curl builds from source end-to-end.
• Phase 2 (Weeks 5-12): Binary bottles, uninstall, upgrade, rollback
• Phase 3 (Weeks 13-16): GPG signatures, build provenance, CVE scanning
• Phase 4 (Weeks 17-24): Snapshots, multi-platform, plugins
• Phase 5 (Weeks 25-32): 90%+ test coverage, documentation, v1.0

See ROADMAP.md for the full 32-week plan.

Installation

From Source

git clone https://github.com/brew-rs/homebrew-rust.git
cd homebrew-rust
cargo build --release
sudo cp target/release/brew-rs /usr/local/bin/

From Binary (Coming Soon)

curl -fsSL https://brew-rs.serendeep.tech/install.sh | sh

Quick Start

# Initialize brew-rs directories
brew-rs init

# Add a tap (formula repository)
brew-rs tap add <name> <git-url>

# Search for a package
brew-rs search <query>

# Preview installation (dry-run)
brew-rs install --dry-run <package>

# Install a package
brew-rs install <package>

# List installed packages
brew-rs list

# List installed taps
brew-rs tap list

# Update tap repositories
brew-rs tap update

# Remove a tap
brew-rs tap remove <name>

# Uninstall a package
brew-rs uninstall <package>

Architecture

Workspace layout:

homebrew-rust/
├── crates/
│   ├── cli/          # User-facing CLI (clap)
│   ├── core/         # Installer, builder, extractor, linker, SQLite database
│   ├── solver/       # SAT resolver (varisat) + install queue
│   ├── fetcher/      # HTTP downloads with SHA-256 and mirror fallback
│   ├── formula/      # TOML formula parsing and validation
│   ├── tap/          # Git-based taps + formula cache (FTS5)
│   └── config/       # XDG paths and TOML settings
├── tests/            # Integration tests
├── docs/             # Specs and roadmap
└── examples/         # Symlink to core tap formulas

Stack

Tokio (async), Reqwest (HTTP), Serde (TOML), Clap (CLI), varisat (SAT solver), rusqlite (SQLite), sha2 (checksums), flate2 + tar (extraction).

Formula format

Formulas are TOML files. See FORMULA_SPEC.md for the full spec. Here's a typical one:

[package]
name = "example"
version = "1.0.0"
description = "An example package"
homepage = "https://example.com"
license = "MIT"

[source]
url = "https://example.com/release-1.0.0.tar.gz"
sha256 = "abc123..."
mirrors = ["https://mirror1.com/release.tar.gz"]

[dependencies]
runtime = ["openssl ^3.0", "zlib >=1.2.11", "libssh2"]
build = ["cmake", "pkg-config"]
test = ["check"]

[build]
commands = [
    "./configure --prefix=$PREFIX",
    "make",
    "make install"
]

[build.env]
CC = "gcc"
CFLAGS = "-O2"

Development

Prerequisites

• Rust 1.75+ (MSRV)
• Git

Building

# Build all crates
cargo build

# Build with optimizations
cargo build --release

# Run tests
cargo test

# Run clippy (linter)
cargo clippy -- -D warnings

# Format code
cargo fmt

Running

# Run CLI in development
cargo run --bin brew-rs -- --help

# Run with verbose logging
cargo run --bin brew-rs -- -v install example

Testing

# Run all tests
cargo test

# Run with output
cargo test -- --nocapture

# Run specific crate tests
cargo test -p brew-core

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Development Workflow

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Make your changes
4. Run tests (cargo test)
5. Run clippy (cargo clippy)
6. Format code (cargo fmt)
7. Commit changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
8. Push to branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
9. Open a Pull Request

Security

SHA-256 checksum verification is mandatory for all downloads. GPG signatures, build provenance attestations, CVE scanning, and sandboxed builds are planned.

To report vulnerabilities, email serendeep10@gmail.com (not public issues).

License

Licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

Acknowledgments

Inspired by Homebrew, Cargo, and libsolv.

Status

Early development -- not ready for production use. Phase 1 complete (Week 4 of 32).

$ brew-rs install curl
Installing zlib 1.3.2...
  zlib 1.3.2 installed
Installing openssl 3.4.4...
  openssl 3.4.4 installed
Installing libssh2 1.11.1...
  libssh2 1.11.1 installed
Installing curl 8.18.0...
  curl 8.18.0 installed

Installed 4 package(s)

$ ~/.local/bin/curl --version
curl 8.18.0 (aarch64-apple-darwin24.6.0) libcurl/8.18.0 OpenSSL/3.4.4 zlib/1.3.2 libssh2/1.11.1

Not implemented yet: uninstall, upgrade, info, binary bottles, signature verification.