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corepack not installed by default with Homebrew #55366
Description
Activity
Further Background
After doing a bit of research in the Homebrew repository, I can see the following:
- This seems to be caused by the
--without-corepackflag in thenode.rbFormula - Homebrew team member @cho-m recommends usage of Homebrew to install Corepack separately with
brew install corepack(which would mean the version number is managed by Homebrew). An exception is made for old versions such asnode@20,node@18, etc, where the--without-corepackis not presentcorepacknot installed with formulanodeHomebrew/homebrew-core#151439 (comment)- This means that the Homebrew behavior will be different for different versions:
node@22:corepacknot installednode@20and older:corepackinstalled
- The
--without-corepackflag was first added in a PR for Node.js 17.3.0, involved Homebrew members @chenrui333 @carlocab @SMillerDev @bevanjkay- node 17.3.0 Homebrew/homebrew-core#91540
- The original reason was "Tests are failing at the moment because of a symlink collision with corepack.", so seems like a Homebrew CI problem
Maybe this should instead be considered a bug in the Homebrew formula? (at least, from the perspective of the Node.js team).
If I can get confirmation that this is considered a bug from the Node.js team, I will report a new separate issue in the Homebrew repository.
- This seems to be caused by the
Homebrew is compiling Node.js without corepack, hence it not being installed. That's certainly not an issue with Node.js, no?
Report issues with the homebrew binary to homebrew.
Homebrew is compiling Node.js without corepack, hence it not being installed. That's certainly not an issue with Node.js, no?
It's an issue with the Node.js Download docs, which recommend installing via Homebrew in two divergent ways:
brew install node@22:corepacknot installedbrew install node@20and older:corepackinstalled
This divergent behavior is a pretty confusing situation for users who are following official Node.js documentation.
If Node.js wants to support Homebrew, and Homebrew has divergent behavior, then the Node.js Download page should add an additional command for the latest Node.js version (so that Corepack is also installed there):
+brew install corepackLooks like a new PR should be done over here, in case Homebrew does not accept the issue below (which is likely, given historical responses to this issue):
Report issues with the homebrew binary to homebrew.
Makes sense, reported again here:
If Node.js wants to support Homebrew, and Homebrew has divergent behavior, then the Node.js Download page should add an additional command for the latest Node.js version (so that Corepack is also installed there):
+brew install corepackLooks like a new PR should be done over here, in case Homebrew does not accept the issue below (which is likely, given historical responses to this issue):
nodejs/nodejs.org@
3c0635c/apps/site/util/getNodeDownloadSnippet.ts#L69-L83Since this was a pretty small PR, I opened it here:
Version
v22.9.0
Platform
Subsystem
No response
What steps will reproduce the bug?
brew install node@22(on macOS, with@22version specifier recommended on download page, screenshot below)corepack enable(as in the Corepack docs page)zsh: command not found: corepackThis also reproduces with no version specifier (
brew install node)How often does it reproduce? Is there a required condition?
Always
What is the expected behavior? Why is that the expected behavior?
corepackis installed and on PATHWhat do you see instead?
corepackis not installedAdditional information
Encountering this bug, I thought that the decision had been made to remove Corepack from Node.js, as is being discussed in various PRs and issues:
yarnandpnpmCorepack binaries by default #51886