Disabled casks being distributed by homebrew?

[jedahan]

Output of brew config

HOMEBREW_VERSION: 5.0.9-27-gdbaabfa
ORIGIN: https://github.com/Homebrew/brew
HEAD: dbaabfafe4dbf90ebe789731bed8fed0be394c4d
Last commit: 5 hours ago
Branch: main
Core tap JSON: 08 Jan 15:32 UTC
Core cask tap HEAD: f5dd31bc05eea8f88852b65d5790b6407c6bcb19
Core cask tap last commit: 9 days ago
Core cask tap JSON: 08 Jan 15:32 UTC
HOMEBREW_PREFIX: /opt/homebrew
HOMEBREW_CASK_OPTS: []
HOMEBREW_DOWNLOAD_CONCURRENCY: 32
HOMEBREW_EDITOR: hx
HOMEBREW_FORBID_PACKAGES_FROM_PATHS: set
HOMEBREW_MAKE_JOBS: 16
HOMEBREW_NO_ENV_HINTS: set
HOMEBREW_SORBET_RUNTIME: set
Homebrew Ruby: 3.4.8 => /opt/homebrew/Library/Homebrew/vendor/portable-ruby/3.4.8/bin/ruby
CPU: 16-core 64-bit arm_brava
Clang: 17.0.0 build 1700
Git: 2.50.1 => /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin/git
Curl: 8.7.1 => /usr/bin/curl
macOS: 15.6.1-arm64
CLT: 16.4.0.0.1.1747106510
Xcode: 26.2
Metal Toolchain: N/A
Rosetta 2: false

Output of 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:
  qbittorrent

Warning: Some installed formulae are deprecated or disabled.
You should find replacements for the following formulae:
  icu4c@77

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/libCAPSImage.dylib

Warning: You have unlinked kegs in your Cellar.
Leaving kegs unlinked can lead to build-trouble and cause formulae that depend on
those kegs to fail to run properly once built. Run `brew link` on these:
  corepack

Description of issue

So it seems homebrew is distributing deprecated and disabled casks (and maybe non-cask formulae?). This is surprising, as if I search for a cask, and it shows, I expect to be able to install it. For casks or fomula that have been deprecated or disabled, why have it in the repo at all?

It seems weird to have a list of installable software alongside a list of 'known but refuse to install' software. Unless there is some easy way to override the deprecation/disablement that is expected of users.

Relevant casks

chirp

[jedahan]

https://docs.brew.sh/Deprecating-Disabling-and-Removing-Formulae for the docs

[jedahan]

It seems there is a 1 year grace period for disable! / deprecate! before removal.

[SMillerDev]

Deprecations still allow people to install the software all the same, but it makes them aware of the state of the software. For the disabled software, I agree your described path is not ideal.

The main expectation there is people who have a deprecated app installed will then get an error if it's disabled, prompting them to either find a replacement or to find a different source for the software.