ARM64 Linux support

[ZhongRuoyu]

We hope to provide official support for ARM64 Linux, starting with a beta later this year. That includes providing bottles for the platform, and bringing first-class support for brew and core formulae.

To make this happen, the following need to be settled (roughly in order):

• Release Portable Ruby
• Provide Docker images
• Support bootstrapping glibc
• Prepare CI infrastructure for bottling (similar to x86_64 Linux: rely on GitHub-hosted runners mostly, and self-hosted runner for long-timeout runs)
• Start bottling core formulae

Also, the following will happen when we feel comfortable:

• Add installer support
• Announce beta for ARM64 Linux (this will happen after a significant portion of formulae are bottled)

What is the motivation for the feature?

There has been considerable interest, both internally and externally, in running Homebrew on ARM64 Linux. Having discussed this at the 2025 AGM, we believe that it is feasible for us to start working on this.

How will the feature be relevant to at least 90% of Homebrew users?

Users on ARM64 machines like Raspberry Pis and Ampere servers can also benefit from Homebrew on Linux. Apple Silicon users can also run Homebrew in Docker natively.

What alternatives to the feature have been considered?

Provide a limited level of support for the platform, most likely shipping the aforementioned features barring the bottling-related ones. This will essentially place Homebrew on ARM64 Linux at a support level similar to Rust's tier 3 support.

[cheese]

Start with Ubuntu 24.04 or just keep in sync with x86_64 Linux？

[ZhongRuoyu]

Start with Ubuntu 24.04 or just keep in sync with x86_64 Linux？

This is irrelevant to specific distro releases. The aim is to support any ARM64 Linux system, as is the case with Homebrew on x86_64 Linux (which works for systems with glibc > 2.13).

If you mean Homebrew's CI environment, it will be kept in sync with x86_64 Linux.