chromium: Missing API keys, Chromium features are disabled

[Neved4]

This is not a command issue, could be considered more of a bug in how Chromium is currently shipped. See Debian Bug report below.

Verification

• I understand that if I ignore these instructions, my issue may be closed without review.
• I have retried my command with --force.
• I ran brew update-reset && brew update and retried my command.
• I ran brew doctor, fixed as many issues as possible and retried my command.
• I have checked the instructions for reporting bugs.
• I made doubly sure this is not a checksum does not match / SHA256 mismatch error (do not open an issue before trying to open a PR to fix first).

Description of issue

Currently, Chromium shipped via Homebrew lacks Google API keys, which disables certain features such as Safe Browsing, Geolocation, and Spelling Suggestions. See:

The key in question allows access to nine separate Google services including Spelling, Suggest, Translate, Geolocation, Safe Browsing, and so on. While some of those features could be considered optional, losing them would certainly degrade users' experience compared to Chrome browser users—or even Firefox users—in many cases. It's a little strange to see a feature added that requires a magic key in order to use it, but the restrictions on what can be done with the APIs and keys makes it all the more worrisome.

Debian also had this issue and seem to have fixed it 10 years ago. We could either reuse Debian API keys or get Google to assign a set of keys for the Homebrew project.

See also

The Chromium Project - API Keys
LWN.net - Chromium API keys on Debian
Debian Bug Tracker - #748867
Debian API keys

Command that failed

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Output of command with --verbose --debug

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Output of brew doctor and brew config

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Output of brew tap

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[SMillerDev]

That page from the chromium project is very specific. It mentions that anyone who did not accept the ToS for these keys is not allowed to use them. So I don't think Homebrew should go against that rule.

[Neved4]

Sounds good, it'd be much better to get Google to assign a set of keys for Homebrew.

[Neved4]

Closing based on the discussions in #193814 (comment) and #193815 (comment). Thx again!

[Neved4]

For anyone stumbling across this on macOS, here's a rundown:

1. With launchctl setenv, you can set the values for a current session.
2. To persist across reboots, you can use a launchd script.
3. The above will set the variables globally. Setting them on a per-app basis will ensure isolation from other processes. To do this, you can feed the values into Info.plist with plutil, but note it will not survive app upgrades.
4. You can also edit Info.plist manually with an editor, and add the values after LSEnvironment.

G'luck!