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I found this install script for msodbcsql at odbc-driver-13-1-for-macos-released

The relevant contents are:

/usr/bin/ruby -e “$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)“
brew tap microsoft/msodbcsql https://github.com/Microsoft/homebrew-mssql-release
brew update
brew install msodbcsql
#for silent install ACCEPT_EULA=y brew install msodbcsql

The part I am confused about is the first line. When I run it gives this output:

$ /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
==> This script will install:
/usr/local/bin/brew
/usr/local/share/doc/homebrew
/usr/local/share/man/man1/brew.1
/usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions/_brew
/usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d/brew
/usr/local/Homebrew
==> The following existing directories will be made group writable:
/usr/local/bin
/usr/local/include

The way I read this is that their install instructions are not just for msodbcsql using homebrew, they are geared towards installing homebrew first, then msodbsql.

Is this common practice, or just some MS cluelessness?

Note: I use macports usually, so I took care to install homebrew in my home directory, so perhaps a standard install of homebrew would not have resulted in their script wanting to trample all over my system.

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3

That's the standard way of installing Homebrew. Microsoft seems to have written an installer which relies on Homebrew being installed, so it makes sense to install it first.

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2
  • Yes, I did the impression that homebrew is installed that way, and that's fine. But wouldn't it be more common to assume homebrew is installed and then perhaps have instructions for installation in case it's not found? Rather than embedding a package manager installation first. i.e. everyone else seems to do fine with brew install xxx. Mind you, I have seen install scripts that grab stuff from github, but usually because the targetted package isn't residing at the usual repo locations. Not because the package manager needs installing. – JL Peyret Jun 26 '17 at 21:46
  • @JLPeyret but then Microsoft would have to support problems originating from custom brew installations. By doing the installation in a fixed way, they can simply reply to others "don't modify the install script!" – Cœur Jun 27 '17 at 0:20

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