Should Microsoft casks really depend on microsoft-auto-update?

[tadamcz]

Output of brew config

NA

Output of brew doctor

NA

Description of issue

All Microsoft casks depend on microsoft-auto-update, as you can see here: https://github.com/search?q=org%3AHomebrew++depends_on+cask%3A+%22microsoft-auto-update%22&type=code

This sort of thing seems odd to me -- isn't the whole point of Homebrew to handle applications and their updates centrally?

Is there a particular reason it's been done this way?

(btw, microsoft-auto-update requires sudo every time you upgrade it with brew upgrade, and presumably also when you install it)

Relevant casks

microsoft-teams

[SMillerDev]

This sort of thing seems odd to me -- isn't the whole point of Homebrew to handle applications and their updates centrally?

Yes, but Microsoft doesn't optimise their software for Homebrew installs so it requires their updater.

[tadamcz]

So, the main application won't work at all without the updater? What would happen if you installed and ran it?

[SMillerDev]

I'm not sure, you can try uninstalling it. But I'm pretty sure the dependency would be omitted if everything worked fine without it.

[cbean]

Tested for years now, the package microsoft-auto-update can be uninstalled afterwards. Just use:

brew uninstall microsoft-auto-update