brew/docs/Migrating-A-Formula-To-A-Tap.md

---
last_review_date: "2025-02-08"
---

# Migrating a Formula to a Tap

There are times when we may wish to migrate a formula from one tap into another tap. To do this:

1. Create a pull request on the new tap adding the formula file as-is from the original tap. Fix any test failures that may occur due to the stricter requirements for new formulae compared to existing formulae (e.g. `brew audit --strict` must pass for that formula).
2. Create a pull request on the original tap deleting the formula file and adding it to `tap_migrations.json` with a commit message like `gv: migrate to homebrew/core`.
3. Put a link for each pull request in the other pull request so the maintainers can merge them both at once.

Congratulations, you've moved a formula to another tap!

For Homebrew maintainers, formulae should only ever be migrated into and within the Homebrew organisation (e.g. from `homebrew/core` to `homebrew/cask`, or from a third-party tap to `homebrew/core`), and never out of it.
Add a `last_reviewed_date` to docs metadata - At the AGM we formed an ad-hoc documentation working group. - One of our ideas was that we should have a last reviewed date for documentation, so that we can periodically implement a review mechanism (GitHub Actions posts to Slack for a regular documentation outdatedness check?) to track how old docs are and ensure they're still relevant. - This is a first step towards that goal, by adding a `last_review_date` to the metadata of all docs with a date of earlier than Homebrew's inception because everything needs reviewing so that we start from a good base! 2025-02-03 10:59:02 +00:00			`---`
Review some docs - Most of these were fine still, apart from: - FAQ: `hub` is less maintained than `gh`. - Brew-Maintainer-Guide: link to GitHub docs on commit signing via GPG or SSH. - Interesting-Taps-and-Forks: remove outdated information about `homebrew/core` being in `Library/Taps`. - New-Maintainer-Checklist: remove outdated information about the `@members` team. 2025-02-08 14:21:38 +00:00			`last_review_date: "2025-02-08"`
Add a `last_reviewed_date` to docs metadata - At the AGM we formed an ad-hoc documentation working group. - One of our ideas was that we should have a last reviewed date for documentation, so that we can periodically implement a review mechanism (GitHub Actions posts to Slack for a regular documentation outdatedness check?) to track how old docs are and ensure they're still relevant. - This is a first step towards that goal, by adding a `last_review_date` to the metadata of all docs with a date of earlier than Homebrew's inception because everything needs reviewing so that we start from a good base! 2025-02-03 10:59:02 +00:00			`---`

Contributors docs: content & formatting updates Update How-To-Open-a-Homebrew-Pull-Request.md Update Acceptable-Formulae.md Update Acceptable-Casks.md Update License-Guidelines.md Update Versions.md Update Versions.md Update Deprecating-Disabling-and-Removing-Formulae.md Update Node-for-Formula-Authors.md Update Python-for-Formula-Authors.md Update Brew-Livecheck.md Update Migrating-A-Formula-To-A-Tap.md Update Rename-A-Formula.md Update How-to-Create-and-Maintain-a-Tap.md Update Brew-Test-Bot.md Update Typechecking.md 2022-10-19 13:28:43 -04:00			`# Migrating a Formula to a Tap`
docs: fix titles on docs.brew.sh 2017-01-04 16:16:00 -06:00
doc: update for core/formula separation Closes Homebrew/homebrew#50632. Signed-off-by: Xu Cheng <xucheng@me.com> 2016-04-02 20:22:58 +08:00			`There are times when we may wish to migrate a formula from one tap into another tap. To do this:`
Migrating A Formula To A Tap: add documentation. Closes Homebrew/homebrew#38570. Signed-off-by: Mike McQuaid <mike@mikemcquaid.com> 2015-04-11 16:46:38 +01:00
Contributors docs: content & formatting updates Update How-To-Open-a-Homebrew-Pull-Request.md Update Acceptable-Formulae.md Update Acceptable-Casks.md Update License-Guidelines.md Update Versions.md Update Versions.md Update Deprecating-Disabling-and-Removing-Formulae.md Update Node-for-Formula-Authors.md Update Python-for-Formula-Authors.md Update Brew-Livecheck.md Update Migrating-A-Formula-To-A-Tap.md Update Rename-A-Formula.md Update How-to-Create-and-Maintain-a-Tap.md Update Brew-Test-Bot.md Update Typechecking.md 2022-10-19 13:28:43 -04:00			1. Create a pull request on the new tap adding the formula file as-is from the original tap. Fix any test failures that may occur due to the stricter requirements for new formulae compared to existing formulae (e.g. `brew audit --strict` must pass for that formula).
			2. Create a pull request on the original tap deleting the formula file and adding it to `tap_migrations.json` with a commit message like `gv: migrate to homebrew/core`.
Migrating A Formula To A Tap: add documentation. Closes Homebrew/homebrew#38570. Signed-off-by: Mike McQuaid <mike@mikemcquaid.com> 2015-04-11 16:46:38 +01:00			`3. Put a link for each pull request in the other pull request so the maintainers can merge them both at once.`

Contributors docs: content & formatting updates Update How-To-Open-a-Homebrew-Pull-Request.md Update Acceptable-Formulae.md Update Acceptable-Casks.md Update License-Guidelines.md Update Versions.md Update Versions.md Update Deprecating-Disabling-and-Removing-Formulae.md Update Node-for-Formula-Authors.md Update Python-for-Formula-Authors.md Update Brew-Livecheck.md Update Migrating-A-Formula-To-A-Tap.md Update Rename-A-Formula.md Update How-to-Create-and-Maintain-a-Tap.md Update Brew-Test-Bot.md Update Typechecking.md 2022-10-19 13:28:43 -04:00			`Congratulations, you've moved a formula to another tap!`
docs: don't migrate formulae out of core/cask 2020-09-08 23:44:58 +10:00
Contributors docs: content & formatting updates Update How-To-Open-a-Homebrew-Pull-Request.md Update Acceptable-Formulae.md Update Acceptable-Casks.md Update License-Guidelines.md Update Versions.md Update Versions.md Update Deprecating-Disabling-and-Removing-Formulae.md Update Node-for-Formula-Authors.md Update Python-for-Formula-Authors.md Update Brew-Livecheck.md Update Migrating-A-Formula-To-A-Tap.md Update Rename-A-Formula.md Update How-to-Create-and-Maintain-a-Tap.md Update Brew-Test-Bot.md Update Typechecking.md 2022-10-19 13:28:43 -04:00			For Homebrew maintainers, formulae should only ever be migrated into and within the Homebrew organisation (e.g. from `homebrew/core` to `homebrew/cask`, or from a third-party tap to `homebrew/core`), and never out of it.