brew update shows deleted software

[Kha1r0]

Output of brew config

HOMEBREW_VERSION: 4.4.3
ORIGIN: https://github.com/Homebrew/brew
HEAD: 91f3671b16fe62121364c465c14e0dfd088d7ead
Last commit: 2 days ago
Core tap JSON: 29 Oct 22:40 UTC
Core cask tap JSON: 29 Oct 22:40 UTC
HOMEBREW_PREFIX: /opt/homebrew
HOMEBREW_CASK_OPTS: []
HOMEBREW_MAKE_JOBS: 10
Homebrew Ruby: 3.3.5 => /opt/homebrew/Library/Homebrew/vendor/portable-ruby/3.3.5/bin/ruby
CPU: 10-core 64-bit arm_blizzard_avalanche
Clang: 16.0.0 build 1600
Git: 2.47.0 => /opt/homebrew/bin/git
Curl: 8.7.1 => /usr/bin/curl
macOS: 15.0.1-arm64
CLT: 16.0.0.0.1.1724870825
Xcode: N/A
Rosetta 2: false

Output of brew doctor

Your system is ready to brew.

Description of issue

After running brew update, i get the message that icu4c is deleted from the repository. Does that mean my device is running unmaintained, possibly insecure software? Do i have reason to be worried?

[p-linnane]

No, we just versioned icu4c. If you run brew info icu4c you will see it is now an alias to icu4c@75.

[Kha1r0]

Thanks! How do i know I‘m safe if i see a message like this in the future? Sorry if this is a stupid question.

[p-linnane]

If you run brew doctor it will let you know if you are using discontinued software:

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

[Kha1r0]

Thank you! ❤️

[tobbi]

@p-linnane For me it also automatically uninstalled icu4c with that message. However, there were formulas that depended on icu4c that now failed to build.

In my case, libxml2:

==> Upgrading libxml2
  2.13.4_2 -> 2.13.4_3
==> ./configure --sysconfdir=/usr/local/etc --disable-silent-rules --with-history --with-http --with-icu --without-python --without-lzma
==> make install
Last 15 lines from /Users/tobiasmarkus/Library/Logs/Homebrew/libxml2/02.make:
      _xmlFindExtraHandler in libxml2_la-encoding.o
      _xmlCharEncCloseFunc in libxml2_la-encoding.o
      _openIcuConverter in libxml2_la-encoding.o
  "_ucnv_convertEx_76", referenced from:
      _xmlUconvWrapper in libxml2_la-encoding.o
  "_ucnv_open_76", referenced from:
      _openIcuConverter in libxml2_la-encoding.o
  "_ucnv_setFromUCallBack_76", referenced from:
      _openIcuConverter in libxml2_la-encoding.o
  "_ucnv_setToUCallBack_76", referenced from:
      _openIcuConverter in libxml2_la-encoding.o
ld: symbol(s) not found for architecture x86_64
clang: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)
make[1]: *** [libxml2.la] Error 1

[meisterfry]

That's a real shame. The only thing i can rule out is the possibility that it has something to do with your OCP configuration, since it also happens on my Macbook Air with native Monterey. Unfortunately my technical skills are very limited, i tried some very simple debugging steps and asked different LLMs, but the only answers provided are things like setting the LD/CPPFLAGS for icu4c@76 which i had obviously already done. Have you tried uninstalling homebrew completely and reinstall everything from scratch?

[EricFromCanada]

The missing symbols are in libicuuc.76.dylib:

$ nm -gU /opt/homebrew/opt/icu4c@76/lib/libicuuc.76.dylib | grep _ucnv_setToUCallBack_76
0000000000065868 T _ucnv_setToUCallBack_76

On ARM w/ Sonoma this library is linked to:

$ brew linkage libxml2
System libraries:
  /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib
  /usr/lib/libiconv.2.dylib
  /usr/lib/libncurses.5.4.dylib
  /usr/lib/libz.1.dylib
Homebrew libraries:
  /opt/homebrew/opt/icu4c@76/lib/libicudata.76.dylib (icu4c@76)
  /opt/homebrew/opt/icu4c@76/lib/libicui18n.76.dylib (icu4c@76)
  /opt/homebrew/opt/icu4c@76/lib/libicuuc.76.dylib (icu4c@76)
  /opt/homebrew/Cellar/libxml2/2.13.4_4/lib/libxml2.2.dylib (libxml2)
  /opt/homebrew/opt/readline/lib/libhistory.8.dylib (readline)
  /opt/homebrew/opt/readline/lib/libreadline.8.dylib (readline)

which we can see when building from source:

/bin/sh ./libtool  --tag=CC   --mode=link clang -pedantic -Wall -Wextra -Wshadow -Wpointer-arith 
…
libxml2_la-xpointer.lo -liconv -L/opt/homebrew/Cellar/icu4c/74.2/lib -licui18n -licuuc -licudata

while on Intel w/ Monterey, -licuuc -licudata are missing:

/bin/sh ./libtool  --tag=CC   --mode=link clang -pedantic -Wall -Wextra -Wshadow -Wpointer-arith
…
libxml2_la-xpointer.lo -L/usr/lib -lz -L/usr/local/Cellar/icu4c@76/76.1_1/lib -licui18n  -liconv

[ZhongRuoyu]

I encountered this a while back too. I haven't had the chance to submit the fix upstream, but I believe this is because libxml2's pkg-config check for icu is missing icu-uc:

    # Try pkg-config first so that static linking works.
    # If this succeeeds, we ignore the WITH_ICU directory.
    PKG_CHECK_MODULES([ICU], [icu-i18n], [
        WITH_ICU=1; XML_PC_REQUIRES="${XML_PC_REQUIRES} icu-i18n"
        m4_ifdef([PKG_CHECK_VAR],
            [PKG_CHECK_VAR([ICU_DEFS], [icu-i18n], [DEFS])])
        if test "x$ICU_DEFS" != "x"; then
            ICU_CFLAGS="$ICU_CFLAGS $ICU_DEFS"
        fi],[:])

We were able to build this in Homebrew CI because pkg-config happened to be absent in the dep tree.

Their CMake counterpart is good:

if(LIBXML2_WITH_ICU)
    find_package(ICU REQUIRED COMPONENTS data i18n uc)
endif()

[EricFromCanada]

Just confirmed that first running brew uninstall pkg-config allows brew install libxml2 to succeed on platforms without bottles. Thanks!

[ZhongRuoyu]

Upstreamed a patch: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/libxml2/-/merge_requests/289. Also fixing this at Homebrew/homebrew-core#197591.