Homebrew for a multi-user macos host

[tbrowder]

How can I, as an administrator on a MacOS host, install homebrew for use by non-admin users?

[gromgit]

This is actually answered in the Homebrew FAQ, though in a rather obscure way:

If you need to run Homebrew in a multi-user environment, consider creating a separate user account specifically for use of Homebrew.

So basically:

1. Create an account just for Homebrew (say, hb)
2. Install Homebrew as user hb (if you have an existing installation, sudo chown -R hb: $(brew --prefix) should fix it right up without the need for reinstallation)
3. Add an entry to /etc/sudoers (better, create a new /etc/sudoers.d/hb file) with something like the following:

hb     ALL = (ALL) NOPASSWD: /opt/homebrew/bin/brew    # or the output of $(which brew)

4. Tell all your users to sudo hb brew ..., or write a simple wrapper script that dose the same thing.

[tbrowder]

Thank you very much for your help. That should do the trick.

[tpkee]

This is actually answered in the Homebrew FAQ, though in a rather obscure way:

If you need to run Homebrew in a multi-user environment, consider creating a separate user account specifically for use of Homebrew.

So basically:

1. Create an account just for Homebrew (say, hb)
2. Install Homebrew as user hb (if you have an existing installation, sudo chown -R hb: $(brew --prefix) should fix it right up without the need for reinstallation)
3. Add an entry to /etc/sudoers (better, create a new /etc/sudoers.d/hb file) with something like the following:

hb     ALL = (ALL) NOPASSWD: /opt/homebrew/bin/brew    # or the output of $(which brew)

4. Tell all your users to sudo hb brew ..., or write a simple wrapper script that dose the same thing.

This doesn't seem to work as it still asks for pwd

[gromgit]

This doesn't seem to work as it still asks for pwd

What brew command are you running that causes it to ask for a password?

[tpkee]

Just brew. If I try to execute it as sudo username brew it throws an error because username is not a command, so I use -Hu

[gromgit]

Yeah, sorry, forgot about the -u flag. -H may or may not be necessary, it's been a while since I last used a multi-user setup.

As for brew asking for a password, that should only happen (off the top of my head) if you:

• sudo -u hb brew install a cask on macOS and the cask installer requires root, because of this recent change: feat: do not use existing sudo authentication in brew commands brew#17694, or
• sudo brew ..., because you're asking for root as yourself rather than hb

If you're being asked for a password under any other circumstance, that may warrant some investigation.