Installation of sshfs via brew fails with dependency error for macFUSE although that's installed

[porg]

Foreword to the maintainer

I read your disclaimer and am aware that this project is in minimal maintenance only. But I wanted to file this issue at the (hopefully) relevant place, as I saw people discussing this at various forums, where the issue is indirectly involved.

Environment

• macOS 11.4 Big Sur
• 64bit Intel Mac
• brew 3.2.0

Reproduction I - The "brew-only" way - Buggy

1. $ brew install macFUSE

• My .zsh_history shows that I ran this.
• Don't recall result exactly, but it was strange, not successful.
• Note that brew info macfuse mentions:

==> Caveats
macfuse requires a kernel extension to work.
If the installation fails, retry after you enable it in:
  System Preferences → Security & Privacy → General

2. $ brew install sshfs and I don't recall the outcome of this either.

The reason seems to be a chicken-egg-problem caused by the raised Kernel Extension Security Settings of macOS Big Sur. See my assumption and the workaround in Reproduction III.

Reproduction II — Mixed install methods — macFUSE PKG + sshfs via brew — Fails too

1. Went to https://osxfuse.github.io > Downloads > Downloaded .PKG wrapped in .DMG disk image > Installed macFUSE 4.1.2
   1.1. So far so good. Seemed to be installed:
   1.1.1. System Preferences > macFUSE showed up among the third party preference panes (last row)
   1.1.2. Opened prefPane > Worked. Ran "Check for Updated". Worked. Said it's the newest one.
   1.2. But not certain whether it was "loaded"
   1.2.1. System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General: No warning. No "accept third party kernel extension" or similar.
   1.2.3. /Applications/Utilities/System Information.app > Software > Extensions: Showed no macFUSE entry
   1.2.3. System restart. Still the same situation.
2. $ brew install sshfs fails with: Error: sshfs has been disabled because it requires FUSE!

Reproduction III — macFUSE and sshfs both via PKG installer — Works!

1. Went to https://osxfuse.github.io > Downloads
   a. Installed macFUSE 4.1.2 via PKG installer on a DMG disk image
   b. Installed ssh 2.5.0 via PKG installer on a DMG disk image
2. Restarted OS — Nothing! Same situation as Reproduction II 1.2.
3. Workaround / Solution — It's a chicken-egg-problem (maybe one could also call it circular dependency problem).
   I guess that's'why Reproduction I "brew-only" fails.

• Run your first $ sshfs username@server:/path-on-server/ ~/path-to-mount-point command.
  • In consequence this calls macFUSE, which was installed, but the KEXT not loaded yet!
  • This throws a security/privacy popup by the system.
  • Press the button which offers to guide you to System Preferences > Security > General > Click "Allow"
    
  • A system restart is necessary
  • Restart.
• Run another $ sshfs username@server:/path-on-server/ ~/path-to-mount-point command.
• Now it works! The remote volume is loaded at the local mountpoint.
  • In Finder you get a volume "macFUSE Volume 0 (sshfs)"
    
  • In Terminal you can browse that volume exactly at your specified mountpoint.
  • /Applications/Utilities/System Information.app > Software > Extensions: Shows macFUSE KEXT entry:
    
  • And the "Loaded" status gets "On" when it's actively in use
  • Great!

Afterword

• Hope that workarround helps others!
  • Please give a ❤️ if it helped you!
• Hope that the convenient combined brew install of macFUSE + sshfs will work again in the future.
  • Please give a 👍 if you 'd appreciate that too.

[porg]

Reason

@Homebrew member @carlocab answered at: Homebrew/discussions#1760 (comment)

macFUSE is no longer open source, and we don't allow non-open source dependencies in Homebrew/core. If you need formulae that depend on macFUSE, try https://github.com/gromgit/homebrew-fuse.

Solution Principle

As instructed on homebrew-fuse:

• Uninstall all previous macFUSE dependent formulae.
• Then install the homebrew-fuse versions, which all use as -mac suffix.
  • Just try if your needed macFUSE plugin is available by $ brew info XYZ-mac or by looking at the Formula list.

Concrete Solution

• I got what I needed by: $ brew install macfuse sshfs-mac curlftpfs-mac
  • Where necessary I used link --overwrite as brew suggested, i.e. brew link --overwrite sshfs-mac
• Then run your first $ sshfs username@server:/path-on-server/ ~/path-to-mount-point command.
  • In consequence this calls macFUSE, which was installed, but the KEXT not loaded yet!
    • This throws a security/privacy popup by the system.
    • Press the button which offers to guide you to System Preferences > Security > General > Click "Allow"
      
    • Restart macOS.
• Run another $ sshfs username@server:/path-on-server/ ~/path-to-mount-point command.
  • Now it works! The remote volume is loaded at the local mountpoint.
  • In Finder you get a volume "macFUSE Volume 0 (sshfs)"
    
  • In Terminal you can browse that volume exactly at your specified mountpoint.
  • /Applications/Utilities/System Information.app > Software > Extensions:
    • Shows macFUSE KEXT entry. "Loaded" status gets "On" when in use. Great!
      

[mrdc]

Concrete Solution

• I got what I needed by: $ brew install macfuse sshfs-mac curlftpfs-mac

Not working anymore:
Error: No available formula with the name "sshfs-mac". Did you mean sshfs?

brew info sshfs    
==> sshfs: stable 3.7.3
File system client based on SSH File Transfer Protocol
https://github.com/libfuse/sshfs
Deprecated because it has an archived upstream repository!

==> Requirements
Required: Linux ✘

[porg]

• Certainly not sshfs for Linux on a Mac.
• Sorry to read that package sshfs-mac is not available for you on your Mac.
• I'm on the older macOS 11 Big Sur and brew info tells me the following:

$ brew info sshfs-mac
==> gromgit/fuse/sshfs-mac: stable 2.10 (bottled)
File system client based on SSH File Transfer Protocol
https://github.com/libfuse/sshfs
/usr/local/Cellar/sshfs-mac/2.10_1 (8 files, 147.4KB) *
  Poured from bottle on 2021-06-30 at 22:38:16
From: https://github.com/gromgit/homebrew-fuse/blob/HEAD/Formula/sshfs-mac.rb
License: LGPL-2.1-only or GPL-2.0-only
==> Dependencies
Build: autoconf ✔, automake ✘, libtool ✔, pkg-config ✔
Required: glib ✔
==> Requirements
Required: macFUSE ✔, macOS ✔
==> Caveats
This formula is outdated, and is provided only as a courtesy.
It cannot be updated until macFUSE supports FUSE API version 3.

If security issues are discovered with this old software,
it may be removed without notice.