Is there any way to specify a branch with "url" method?

[rfritz]

Output of brew config

HOMEBREW_VERSION: 5.0.8-9-g9580057
ORIGIN: https://github.com/Homebrew/brew
HEAD: 9580057ee7783ad8efd9acf53a15cfe3ed7cf0d7
Last commit: 3 hours ago
Branch: main
Core tap HEAD: 0abdef72e90f933a1c8ca14f4de3949ba63adf5e
Core tap last commit: 3 hours ago
Core tap branch: tenacity
Core tap JSON: 30 Dec 09:32 UTC
Core cask tap HEAD: 11d56c646d822319153da91bd0ab007d24b6725e
Core cask tap last commit: 2 hours ago
Core cask tap JSON: 30 Dec 09:32 UTC
HOMEBREW_PREFIX: /opt/homebrew
HOMEBREW_CASK_OPTS: []
HOMEBREW_DISPLAY: /private/tmp/com.apple.launchd.bes5JMT0UQ/org.xquartz:0
HOMEBREW_DOWNLOAD_CONCURRENCY: 28
HOMEBREW_EDITOR: emacsclient
HOMEBREW_FORBID_PACKAGES_FROM_PATHS: set
HOMEBREW_MAKE_JOBS: 14
HOMEBREW_SORBET_RUNTIME: set
Homebrew Ruby: 3.4.8 => /opt/homebrew/Library/Homebrew/vendor/portable-ruby/3.4.8/bin/ruby
CPU: 14-core 64-bit arm_brava
Clang: 17.0.0 build 1700
Git: 2.52.0 => /opt/homebrew/bin/git
Curl: 8.7.1 => /usr/bin/curl
macOS: 15.7.1-arm64
CLT: 26.0.0.0.1.1757719676
Xcode: 26.2
Metal Toolchain: N/A
Rosetta 2: false

Output of brew doctor

Warning: Some installed casks are deprecated or disabled.
You should find replacements for the following casks:
  deluge
  gstreamer-runtime
  wine@devel

Warning: Some installed kegs have no formulae!
This means they were either deleted or installed manually.
You should find replacements for the following formulae:
  portsmf
  libsbsms

Warning: Some installed formulae are deprecated or disabled.
You should find replacements for the following formulae:
  icu4c@76

Warning: Unbrewed dylibs were found in /usr/local/lib.
If you didn't put them there on purpose they could cause problems when
building Homebrew formulae and may need to be deleted.

Unexpected dylibs:
  /usr/local/lib/librtrad_dy.dylib
  /usr/local/lib/libwkhtmltox.0.12.6.dylib

Warning: Unbrewed header files were found in /usr/local/include.
If you didn't put them there on purpose they could cause problems when
building Homebrew formulae and may need to be deleted.

Unexpected header files:
  /usr/local/include/wkhtmltox/*

Warning: Unbrewed static libraries were found in /usr/local/lib.
If you didn't put them there on purpose they could cause problems when
building Homebrew formulae and may need to be deleted.

Unexpected static libraries:
  /usr/local/lib/libnyquist.a

Warning: You have uncommitted modifications to Homebrew/homebrew-core.
If this is a surprise to you, then you should stash these modifications.
Stashing returns Homebrew to a pristine state but can be undone
should you later need to do so for some reason.
  git -C "/opt/homebrew/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-core" stash -u && git -C "/opt/homebrew/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-core" clean -d -f

Uncommitted files:
  ?? Formula/lib/libsbsms.rb
  ?? Formula/p/portsmf.rb
  ?? Formula/t/tenacity.rb

Warning: Some taps are not on the default git origin branch and may not receive
updates. If this is a surprise to you, check out the default branch with:
  git -C $(brew --repo homebrew/core) checkout main

Warning: Homebrew's "sbin" was not found in your PATH but you have installed
formulae that put executables in /opt/homebrew/sbin.
Consider setting your PATH for example like so:
  echo 'export PATH="/opt/homebrew/sbin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc
rfritz@Lobo homebrew-core % brew remove icu4c@76
Error: Refusing to uninstall /opt/homebrew/Cellar/icu4c@76/76.1_2
because it is required by groff, jing-trang, tesseract-lang and vgrind, which are currently installed.
You can override this and force removal with:
  brew uninstall --ignore-dependencies icu4c@76
rfritz@Lobo homebrew-core % 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: Some installed casks are deprecated or disabled.
You should find replacements for the following casks:
  deluge
  gstreamer-runtime
  wine@devel

Warning: Some installed kegs have no formulae!
This means they were either deleted or installed manually.
You should find replacements for the following formulae:
  portsmf
  libsbsms

Warning: Some installed formulae are deprecated or disabled.
You should find replacements for the following formulae:
  icu4c@76

Warning: Unbrewed dylibs were found in /usr/local/lib.
If you didn't put them there on purpose they could cause problems when
building Homebrew formulae and may need to be deleted.

Unexpected dylibs:
  /usr/local/lib/librtrad_dy.dylib
  /usr/local/lib/libwkhtmltox.0.12.6.dylib

Warning: Unbrewed header files were found in /usr/local/include.
If you didn't put them there on purpose they could cause problems when
building Homebrew formulae and may need to be deleted.

Unexpected header files:
  /usr/local/include/wkhtmltox/*

Warning: Unbrewed static libraries were found in /usr/local/lib.
If you didn't put them there on purpose they could cause problems when
building Homebrew formulae and may need to be deleted.

Unexpected static libraries:
  /usr/local/lib/libnyquist.a

Warning: You have uncommitted modifications to Homebrew/homebrew-core.
If this is a surprise to you, then you should stash these modifications.
Stashing returns Homebrew to a pristine state but can be undone
should you later need to do so for some reason.
  git -C "/opt/homebrew/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-core" stash -u && git -C "/opt/homebrew/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-core" clean -d -f

Uncommitted files:
  ?? Formula/lib/libsbsms.rb
  ?? Formula/p/portsmf.rb
  ?? Formula/t/tenacity.rb

Warning: Some taps are not on the default git origin branch and may not receive
updates. If this is a surprise to you, check out the default branch with:
  git -C $(brew --repo homebrew/core) checkout main

Warning: Homebrew's "sbin" was not found in your PATH but you have installed
formulae that put executables in /opt/homebrew/sbin.
Consider setting your PATH for example like so:
  echo 'export PATH="/opt/homebrew/sbin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc

Description of issue

I've run into a repo which doesn't have tar files (sigh) and must be downloaded from from git . The repo follows the convention of using "main" for the main branch of the repo rather than "master," and there doesn't seem to be a way to tell Homebrew this. Have I missed something? Or must I stick with a head formula?

Update: found release files. Still a good question, just a less immediate one.

[p-linnane]

Are you trying to build directly from the default branch? Because that would be a HEAD only formula. If you just need to check out a tag/revision you can do

  url "https://github.com/user/repo.git",
      tag:      "v1.0.0",
      revision: "hashgoeshere"

[rfritz]

No, I was trying to build a tagged version, but found I couldn't do it. I cannot currently replicate the problem and don't understand why, so I am not going to worry about it any more.

[SMillerDev]

Just as an aside, tags do not live on branches. They only have a connection to commits.