Starting et server with sudo brew services

[injust]

Additional Info

• I am using Windows Subsystem for Linux

Output of brew config

HOMEBREW_VERSION: 5.1.10
ORIGIN: https://github.com/Homebrew/brew
HEAD: af835384ac574f76025adb38b292b04cecee1f1f
Last commit: 23 hours ago
Branch: stable
Core tap JSON: 08 May 08:46 UTC
HOMEBREW_PREFIX: /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew
HOMEBREW_BAT_THEME: dark
HOMEBREW_CASK_OPTS: []
HOMEBREW_DOWNLOAD_CONCURRENCY: 4
HOMEBREW_EDITOR: micro
HOMEBREW_FORBID_PACKAGES_FROM_PATHS: set
HOMEBREW_MAKE_JOBS: 2
HOMEBREW_NO_ANALYTICS: set
HOMEBREW_NO_ENV_HINTS: set
Homebrew Ruby: 4.0.3 => /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/vendor/portable-ruby/4.0.3/bin/ruby
CPU: dual-core 64-bit arm
Clang: 15.0.7
Git: 2.50.1 => /bin/git
Curl: 8.17.0 => /bin/curl
Kernel: Linux 6.18.20-41.237.amzn2023.aarch64 aarch64 GNU/Linux
OS: Amazon Linux 2023.11.20260505
Host glibc: 2.34
Host libstdc++: 6.0.33
/usr/bin/gcc: 11.5.0
/usr/bin/ruby: N/A
glibc: 2.39
gcc@12: N/A
gcc: 15.2.0_1
xorg: N/A

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: Your system glibc 2.34 is too old.
We will need to automatically install a newer version.

We recommend updating to a newer version via your distribution's
package manager, upgrading your distribution to the latest version,
or changing distributions.

This is a Tier 2 configuration:
  https://docs.brew.sh/Support-Tiers#tier-2
You can report issues with Tier 2 configurations to Homebrew/* repositories!
Read the above document before opening any issues or PRs.

Description of issue

Two problems:

1. sudo --preserve-env=HOME (which brew) services start et reports that it successfully started et, but it actually failed. Is it possible for brew to report the failure?
2. et fails to start because of a "No such file or directory" error. After looking in the systemd service file (/usr/lib/systemd/system/homebrew.et.service), this was because /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/var/log/et/ did not exist. I see that the formula specifies this path (https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/blob/ddca152a5145f7e42e8c9c6ca2a22a68f6985f1f/Formula/e/et.rb#L55-L56). Can brew create this directory automatically?

---

brew install et:

✔︎ JSON API formula.jws.json                                                                                                                                                           Downloaded   32.0MB/ 32.0MB
✔︎ JSON API cask.jws.json                                                                                                                                                              Downloaded   15.3MB/ 15.3MB
==> Fetching downloads for: et
✔︎ Bottle Manifest et (6.2.11)                                                                                                                                                         Downloaded   13.8KB/ 13.8KB
✔︎ Bottle Manifest libsodium (1.0.22)                                                                                                                                                  Downloaded    7.3KB/  7.3KB
✔︎ Bottle libsodium (1.0.22)                                                                                                                                                           Downloaded  443.8KB/443.8KB
✔︎ Bottle Manifest ca-certificates (2026-03-19)                                                                                                                                        Downloaded    2.0KB/  2.0KB
✔︎ Bottle ca-certificates (2026-03-19)                                                                                                                                                 Downloaded  132.4KB/132.4KB
✔︎ Bottle Manifest openssl@4 (4.0.0)                                                                                                                                                   Downloaded    9.1KB/  9.1KB
✔︎ Bottle Manifest abseil (20260107.1)                                                                                                                                                 Downloaded   63.0KB/ 63.0KB
✔︎ Bottle abseil (20260107.1)                                                                                                                                                          Downloaded    2.1MB/  2.1MB
✔︎ Bottle Manifest protobuf (34.1)                                                                                                                                                     Downloaded   10.7KB/ 10.7KB
✔︎ Bottle Manifest brotli (1.2.0)                                                                                                                                                      Downloaded    8.0KB/  8.0KB
✔︎ Bottle openssl@4 (4.0.0)                                                                                                                                                            Downloaded   12.2MB/ 12.2MB
✔︎ Bottle protobuf (34.1)                                                                                                                                                              Downloaded    4.3MB/  4.3MB
✔︎ Bottle brotli (1.2.0)                                                                                                                                                               Downloaded  851.8KB/851.8KB
✔︎ Bottle et (6.2.11)                                                                                                                                                                  Downloaded    2.4MB/  2.4MB
==> Installing dependencies for et: libsodium, ca-certificates, openssl@4, abseil, protobuf and brotli
==> Installing et dependency: libsodium
==> Pouring libsodium--1.0.22.arm64_linux.bottle.tar.gz
🍺  /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Cellar/libsodium/1.0.22: 89 files, 1.5MB
==> Installing et dependency: ca-certificates
==> Pouring ca-certificates--2026-03-19.all.bottle.tar.gz
Loaded 143 system certificates
Loaded 7 Mozilla certificates
==> CA certificates have been bootstrapped from the system CA store at /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
🍺  /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Cellar/ca-certificates/2026-03-19: 4 files, 239.7KB
==> Installing et dependency: openssl@4
==> Pouring openssl@4--4.0.0.arm64_linux.bottle.tar.gz
🍺  /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Cellar/openssl@4/4.0.0: 7,717 files, 45.4MB
==> Installing et dependency: abseil
==> Pouring abseil--20260107.1.arm64_linux.bottle.tar.gz
🍺  /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Cellar/abseil/20260107.1: 806 files, 13.1MB
==> Installing et dependency: protobuf
==> Pouring protobuf--34.1.arm64_linux.bottle.tar.gz
🍺  /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Cellar/protobuf/34.1: 368 files, 17.3MB
==> Installing et dependency: brotli
==> Pouring brotli--1.2.0.arm64_linux.bottle.tar.gz
🍺  /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Cellar/brotli/1.2.0: 33 files, 2.1MB
==> Installing et
==> Pouring et--6.2.11.arm64_linux.bottle.1.tar.gz
==> Caveats
To start et now and restart at startup:
  sudo brew services start et
Or, if you don't want/need a background service you can just run:
  /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/opt/et/bin/etserver --cfgfile /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/etc/et.cfg
==> Summary
🍺  /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Cellar/et/6.2.11: 13 files, 8.2MB
==> Running `brew cleanup et`...
==> Caveats
==> et
To start et now and restart at startup:
  sudo brew services start et
Or, if you don't want/need a background service you can just run:
  /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/opt/et/bin/etserver --cfgfile /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/etc/et.cfg

sudo brew services start et:

sudo: brew: command not found

sudo (which brew) services start et:

Error: Need to download https://formulae.brew.sh/api/formula.jws.json but cannot as root! Run `brew update` without `sudo` first then try again.

brew update:

==> Updating Homebrew...
Already up-to-date.

sudo (which brew) services start et again:

Error: Need to download https://formulae.brew.sh/api/formula.jws.json but cannot as root! Run `brew update` without `sudo` first then try again.

From https://github.com/orgs/Homebrew/discussions/5260:

On some Linux distributions, you may need to do sudo --preserve-env=HOME brew services

sudo --preserve-env=HOME (which brew) services start et:

Warning: Taking root:root ownership of some et paths:
  /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/opt/et
  /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/opt/et/bin
  /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/var/homebrew/linked/et
This will require manual removal of these paths using `sudo rm` on
brew upgrade/reinstall/uninstall.
==> Successfully started `et` (label: homebrew.et)

Looked like it worked...but not really 😦

sudo --preserve-env=HOME (which brew) services info et:

et (homebrew.et)
Running: ✘
Loaded: ✘
Schedulable: ✘

Looking in journalctl:

(etserver)[144501]: homebrew.et.service: Failed to set up standard output: No such file or directory
systemd[1]: Started homebrew.et.service - Homebrew generated unit for et.
(etserver)[144501]: homebrew.et.service: Failed at step STDOUT spawning /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/opt/et/bin/etserver: No such file or directory
systemd[1]: homebrew.et.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=209/STDOUT
systemd[1]: homebrew.et.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

But /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/opt/et/bin/etserver does exist, so I'm confused what the problem is now.

[SMillerDev]

Does this option work?

Or, if you don't want/need a background service you can just run:
  /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/opt/et/bin/etserver --cfgfile /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/etc/et.cfg

[injust]

I didn't test that. I realized what the actual problem was and edited OP, see the top of "Description of issue".

[SMillerDev]

Yes, that was already pointed out in the post. Please feel free to open a pull request to have brew automatically create the paths in a service.