[MikeMcQuaid]

• Document that sudo brew trusts the prefix owner and anyone able to modify Homebrew's code to execute arbitrary commands as root.
• Describe edits to bin/brew and loaded code taking effect before command-specific checks or switching to another account.
• Include this guidance in services, as-brew-user, as-console-user and --prefix help, plus the shared manual description.
• State that services started with sudo run as root by default unless another service user is configured.
• Describe ownership transfer as changing selected service paths and retain the warning about manual removal during package maintenance.
• Explain that ownership changes to selected paths retain trust in accounts that can still modify the Homebrew installation.
• Expand docs/FAQ.md, docs/Formula-Cookbook.md and docs/Installation.md with the prefix owner trust model and an example of modifying the brew entry point.

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• Have you followed our Contributing guidelines?
• Have you checked for other open Pull Requests for the same change?
• Have you explained what your changes do? Performance claims (e.g. "this is faster") must include brew benchmark results.
• Have you explained why you'd like these changes included, not just what they do?
• For bug fixes, have you given step-by-step brew commands to reproduce the bug?
• Have you written new tests (excluding integration tests)? Here's an example.
• Have you successfully run brew lgtm (style, typechecking and tests) locally?

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• I did not use AI/LLM to create this PR, or I disclosed the tool/model below and reviewed its output; I did not attribute commits to AI and will answer maintainer questions and review comments myself without AI/LLM.

Codex with GPT 6.1 Sol at Extra High effort, with local review and testing.

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[coderabbitai]

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Summary

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Documentation
  • Expanded warnings across Homebrew commands and documentation to clarify that running brew with sudo trusts the Homebrew prefix owner and anyone able to modify Homebrew’s code to execute code as root.
  • Clarified that services started with sudo run as root unless configured otherwise, and that service software must also be trusted.
  • Added guidance on using brew services without sudo when root privileges are unnecessary.

The change adds sudo trust warnings to Homebrew command descriptions and documentation. It also expands root-service warnings and updates tests to check the service messages.

Changes: sudo and root-service warnings

Layer / File(s)	Summary
General sudo trust warning Library/Homebrew/manpages/brew.1.md.erb, docs/Manpage.md, manpages/brew.1, docs/FAQ.md, docs/Installation.md	The general brew documentation and FAQ state that sudo brew can run code as root before command checks or account switches.
Command-specific sudo warnings Library/Homebrew/cmd/--prefix.rb, Library/Homebrew/cmd/as-brew-user.rb, Library/Homebrew/cmd/as-console-user.rb, docs/Manpage.md, manpages/brew.1	The --prefix, as-brew-user, and as-console-user descriptions and manpage entries explain the prefix-owner trust associated with sudo.
Root-service warnings and validation Library/Homebrew/cmd/services.rb, Library/Homebrew/services/cli.rb, Library/Homebrew/test/services/cli_spec.rb, docs/Formula-Cookbook.md, docs/Manpage.md, manpages/brew.1	Service command text and documentation describe root execution and the trust required when Homebrew services run as root. Tests check the updated warnings.

Merge Risk: Minimal · previous review 3e001

The PR adds consistent sudo and root-service trust warnings without an evidenced behavioral regression.

Pre-merge checks: 4

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check		The title "Explain root command and service ownership trust" matches the changeset. The PR adds warnings to help text, manpages and docs that running brew with sudo trusts the prefix owner to run code…
Description check		The description is related to the changeset. It lists the sudo trust warning, the affected commands (services, as-brew-user, as-console-user, --prefix), the manual and FAQ updates, and the service roo…
Linked Issues check		Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check		Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

Full details: Title check

Explanation

The title "Explain root command and service ownership trust" matches the changeset. The PR adds warnings to help text, manpages and docs that running brew with sudo trusts the prefix owner to run code as root, and it covers service root ownership. The title names the main theme, though it does not name the specific docs and help text changes.

Full details: Description check

Explanation

The description is related to the changeset. It lists the sudo trust warning, the affected commands (services, as-brew-user, as-console-user, --prefix), the manual and FAQ updates, and the service root-ownership behaviour. It is detailed and on-topic. Some bullets repeat each other, but this does not make it off-topic.

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Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between fad7cba and 3e00149.

Files selected for processing: 12

• Library/Homebrew/cmd/--prefix.rb
• Library/Homebrew/cmd/as-brew-user.rb
• Library/Homebrew/cmd/as-console-user.rb
• Library/Homebrew/cmd/services.rb
• Library/Homebrew/manpages/brew.1.md.erb
• Library/Homebrew/services/cli.rb
• Library/Homebrew/test/services/cli_spec.rb
• docs/FAQ.md
• docs/Formula-Cookbook.md
• docs/Installation.md
• docs/Manpage.md
• manpages/brew.1

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