brew/docs/Rename-A-Formula.md

---
last_review_date: "1970-01-01"
---

# Renaming a Formula

Sometimes software and formulae need to be renamed. To rename a formula you need to:

1. Rename the formula file and its class to a new formula name. The new name must meet all the usual rules of formula naming. 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 corresponding tap deleting the old formula file, adding the new formula file, and adding it to `formula_renames.json` with a commit message like `newack: renamed from ack`. Use the canonical name (e.g. `ack` instead of `user/repo/ack`).

A `formula_renames.json` example for a formula rename:

```json
{
  "ack": "newack"
}
```
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			`---`
			`last_review_date: "1970-01-01"`
			`---`

add documentation for formula renames 2015-08-09 15:14:54 +03:00			`# Renaming a Formula`

Contributors docs: adjust line breaks 2022-04-19 21:28:17 -04:00			`Sometimes software and formulae need to be renamed. To rename a formula you need to:`
add documentation for formula renames 2015-08-09 15:14:54 +03:00
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. Rename the formula file and its class to a new formula name. The new name must meet all the usual rules of formula naming. 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).
add documentation for formula renames 2015-08-09 15:14:54 +03:00
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			2. Create a pull request on the corresponding tap deleting the old formula file, adding the new formula file, and adding it to `formula_renames.json` with a commit message like `newack: renamed from ack`. Use the canonical name (e.g. `ack` instead of `user/repo/ack`).
add documentation for formula renames 2015-08-09 15:14:54 +03:00
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			A `formula_renames.json` example for a formula rename:
add documentation for formula renames 2015-08-09 15:14:54 +03:00
			```json
			`{`
			`"ack": "newack"`
			`}`
			```