We chose to use GoReleaser at ObservIQ for our distro of the OpenTelemetry Collector to simplify how we build and support many operating systems and architectures. GoReleaser enables us to build targeting a matrix of GOOS and GOARCH  targets as well as automate creating a wide range of deliverables. The ones we have utilized are building tarballs, nfpm packages, docker images, and Homebrew formula.

For this article, the focus is on the Homebrew Taps capabilities in GoReleaser and our journey using it. Our goal was to make it easy for users to install our software on macOS so that they could easily try it out. We went with Homebrew as it’s familiar to many macOS users and would allow a user to try out our software and remove it just as easily when they are finished.