brew cask not finding installed apps

[meireles]

I have a few applications installed with brew cask install but a brew cask list returns Warning: nothing to list.
Nevertheless, I can see all my apps installed when I:

ls /opt/homebrew-cask/Caskroom/
basictex        java            rstudio-preview     tex-live-utility
cyberduck       macdown         slack           transmission
firefox         qt-creator      sourcetree

Any ideas of how I can fix this?

[jawshooah]

The default Caskroom path recently changed to /usr/local/Caskroom (#21857). You can either mv /opt/homebrew-cask/Caskroom /usr/local or, as a transitional measure, add --caskroom=/opt/homebrew-cask/Caskroom to your HOMEBREW_CASK_OPTS.

[tiennou]

Would it be acceptable to put that @jawshooah comment in the warning provided by cask ? As it stands "migration" doesn't make it clear that a simple mv can do the trick... Thanks !

[cwonrails]

Thanks to @jawshooah and @tiennou - I just resolved all issues using this method.

[jawshooah]

@tiennou The reason I didn't include the mv method in the warning printed by cask is that many users likely still have casks that were linked rather than moved prior to #13966, so just moving the Caskroom would leave a bunch of broken symlinks.

Unfortunately the only silver bullet that works regardless of where and how your casks were originally installed is to brew cask install --force.

[tiennou]

Oh ok, effectively if it's broken afterward 😉 . I just find the current warning not so helpful because it just says there's something wrong, without making it clear how to (cleanly) fix, and, as you point out, what are the shortcomings of each solution (e.g. mv breaks symlinks and --caskroom is "slated" for removal). Putting a link to some meta-issue (like this one) that describe what is the correct fix would be nicer, instead of scavenging for 10 minutes for additional context.

[jawshooah]

Fair enough. Mind submitting a PR with the suggested changes so we can discuss further? I've got my hands full at work at the moment.

[vitorgalvao]

@tiennou See #21915. Please comment there (or feel free to submit a PR you find answers this better).

[krisleech]

You can do ln -s /usr/local/Caskroom /opt/homebrew-cask/Caskroom to restore any symlinks, such as those in ~/Applications.