That punch line about TextMate.app probably should be removed

[roelandschoukens]

Output of brew config

✔︎ JSON API formula_tap_migrations.jws.json                                                                                         [Downloaded    2.1KB/  2.1KB]
✔︎ JSON API cask_tap_migrations.jws.json                                                                                            [Downloaded    2.4KB/  2.4KB]
✔︎ JSON API cask.jws.json                                                                                                           [Downloaded   15.0MB/ 15.0MB]
✔︎ JSON API formula.jws.json                                                                                                        [Downloaded   31.7MB/ 31.7MB]
HOMEBREW_VERSION: 5.0.3
ORIGIN: https://github.com/Homebrew/brew
HEAD: fbfdbaba008189499958a7aeb1e2c36ab10c067d
Last commit: 4 days ago
Branch: stable
Core tap JSON: 23 Nov 23:38 UTC
Core cask tap JSON: 23 Nov 23:38 UTC
HOMEBREW_PREFIX: /opt/homebrew
HOMEBREW_CASK_OPTS: []
HOMEBREW_DOWNLOAD_CONCURRENCY: 28
HOMEBREW_EDITOR: /usr/bin/open -n -W -a /System/Applications/TextEdit.app
HOMEBREW_FORBID_PACKAGES_FROM_PATHS: set
HOMEBREW_MAKE_JOBS: 14
Homebrew Ruby: 3.4.7 => /opt/homebrew/Library/Homebrew/vendor/portable-ruby/3.4.7/bin/ruby
CPU: 14-core 64-bit arm_brava
Clang: 17.0.0 build 1700
Git: 2.39.5 => /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin/git
Curl: 8.7.1 => /usr/bin/curl
macOS: 15.6-arm64
CLT: 26.0
Xcode: 16.4
Rosetta 2: false

Output of brew doctor

Please note that these warnings are just used to help the Homebrew maintainers
with debugging if you file an issue. If everything you use Homebrew for is
working fine: please don't worry or file an issue; just ignore this. Thanks!

Warning: /usr/bin occurs before /opt/homebrew/bin in your PATH.
This means that system-provided programs will be used instead of those
provided by Homebrew. Consider setting your PATH so that
/opt/homebrew/bin occurs before /usr/bin. Here is a one-liner:
  echo 'export PATH="/opt/homebrew/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc

The following tools exist at both paths:
  openssl

Description of issue

Link: https://docs.brew.sh/FAQ#why-does-homebrew-say-sudo-is-bad

This line:

and you installed TextMate.app without sudo anyway

The problem is:

• On Linux installing anything system wide almost certainly did in fact require sudo.
• on Windows, the same, the first thing that normally happens if you install anything is an elevation prompt.

If this wasn't required you almost certainly have installed something in your user folder (also not recommended by homebrew)

macOS is the odd one out, the reason why you could install TextMate without sudo is almost certainly that the /Application folder is group writeable and your user is in the admin group. But homebrew installs are not supposed to be group writeable either (I think?).

[SMillerDev]

If this wasn't required you almost certainly have installed something in your user folder

Or just any folder your user controls like... it's homebrew install.

But homebrew installs are not supposed to be group writeable either

No, but they are expected to be for a single user.

[roelandschoukens]

The documentation very strongly discourages installing Homebrew in your user folder.

Computers used by multiple users exist, nothing we can do to change that. This makes the requirement to install in /opt/homebrew and the requirement for installs to be for a single user mutually exclusive.

We can make a dedicated homebrew user of course, in which case any updates will need some form of sudo:

% cd /opt/homebrew
% sudo -H -u homebrew_user brew update

[SMillerDev]

The documentation very strongly discourages installing Homebrew in your user folder.

But the prefix on Linux is /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew, which is definitely a user folder. This also allows anything homebrew to be installed on Linux without sudo.

Computers used by multiple users exist, nothing we can do to change that

There is a part in the FAQ about that too, which explains Homebrews stance on it.

---

Overall, there are exceptions to everything but Homebrew very rarely requires admin rights and actively blocks you from running as root (the sudo usage most people know about).

So for the purposes of Homebrew: you don't need sudo.