My couchdb.rb recipe for installing couchdb master or soon-to-be-released branches before they get committed to homebrew. Currently you get a master (future 1.4.0) with support for Erlang R16B.

README.md

This is my test config for homebrew, so I can install from branches quickly. The default (non --devel or --master) installs should be the same as homebrew's setup.

To install a release branch:

brew install -v https://gist.github.com/dch/4657643/raw/couchdb.rb

To install the development branch:

brew install -v --devel https://gist.github.com/dch/4657643/raw/couchdb.rb

If your bootstrap fails, saying "Unable to find the ax_check_icu.m4' file. Have you installed GNU Autoconf Archive?" then ensure that /usr/local/binis in your path ahead of/usr/bin` so that you use the brewed aclocal, not the OSX supplied one.

NB - this is unlikely to work on releases of OS X much older than Lion, if it does please let us know on twitter @couchdb or IRC #couchdb.

couchdb.rb

require 'formula'

class Couchdb < Formula
  homepage "http://couchdb.apache.org/"
  url 'http://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi?path=/couchdb/source/1.3.0/apache-couchdb-1.3.0.tar.gz'
  sha1 '1085297fcabb020f407283aba1f74302c9923fa0'

  head 'http://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/couchdb.git'

  devel do
    #url 'http://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/couchdb.git', :branch => '1696-update-mochiweb-2-4-2'
    url 'git://github.com/dch/couchdb.git', :branch => '1696-update-mochi-2.4.2-master'
    version '1.4.x'
  end

  if build.devel? or build.head?
    depends_on 'autoconf' => :build
    depends_on 'autoconf-archive' => :build
    depends_on 'pkg-config' => :build
    depends_on 'automake' => :build
    depends_on 'libtool' => :build
    depends_on 'help2man' => :build
  end
  depends_on 'spidermonkey'
  depends_on 'icu4c'
  depends_on 'erlang'
  depends_on 'curl' if MacOS.version == :leopard

  # couchdb 1.3.0 supports vendor names and versioning
  # in the welcome message
  def patches; DATA; end

  def install
    if build.devel? or build.head?
      # workaround for the auto-generation of THANKS file which assumes
      # a developer build environment incl access to git sha
      touch "THANKS"
      system "./bootstrap" if File.exists? "bootstrap"
    end

    # required for the icu4c library
    ENV.append 'LDFLAGS', "-L#{HOMEBREW_PREFIX}/lib"
    system "./configure", "--prefix=#{prefix}",
                          "--localstatedir=#{var}",
                          "--sysconfdir=#{etc}",
                          "--disable-init",
                          "--with-erlang=#{HOMEBREW_PREFIX}/lib/erlang/usr/include",
                          "--with-js-include=#{HOMEBREW_PREFIX}/include/js",
                          "--with-js-lib=#{HOMEBREW_PREFIX}/lib"
    system "make"
    system "make install"

    (prefix+"Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.couchdb.plist").chmod 0644
    (lib+'couchdb/bin/couchjs').chmod 0755
    (var+'lib/couchdb').mkpath
    (var+'log/couchdb').mkpath
  end

  def test
    puts <<-EOS.undent
      To test CouchDB, start `couchdb` in a terminal and then:
        curl http://127.0.0.1:5984/

      The reply should look like:
        {"couchdb":"Welcome","version":"1.3.0"}
    EOS
  end

  def caveats; <<-EOS.undent
    If this is your first install, automatically load on login with:
        mkdir -p ~/Library/LaunchAgents
        cp #{prefix}/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.couchdb.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents/
        launchctl load -w ~/Library/LaunchAgents/org.apache.couchdb.plist

    If this is an upgrade and you already have the org.apache.couchdb.plist loaded:
        launchctl unload -w ~/Library/LaunchAgents/org.apache.couchdb.plist
        cp #{prefix}/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.couchdb.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents/
        launchctl load -w ~/Library/LaunchAgents/org.apache.couchdb.plist

    Alternatively, automatically run on startup as a daemon with:
        sudo launchctl list org.apache.couchdb \>/dev/null 2\>\&1 \&\& \\
          sudo launchctl unload -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.couchdb.plist
        sudo cp #{prefix}/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.couchdb.plist /Library/LaunchDaemons/
        sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.couchdb.plist

    Or start manually as the current user with:
        couchdb
    EOS
  end
end

__END__
diff --git i/etc/couchdb/default.ini.tpl.in w/etc/couchdb/default.ini.tpl.in
index 736d9cd..606e465 100644
--- i/etc/couchdb/default.ini.tpl.in
+++ w/etc/couchdb/default.ini.tpl.in
@@ -2,8 +2,8 @@

 ; Upgrading CouchDB will overwrite this file.
 [vendor]
-name = %package_author_name%
-version = %version%
+name = Homebrew
+version = %version%-1

 [couchdb]
 database_dir = %localstatelibdir%