Linux brew install languagetool, service does not start

[white-gecko]

Additional Info

• I am using Windows Subsystem for Linux

Output of brew config

HOMEBREW_VERSION: 4.5.0
ORIGIN: https://github.com/Homebrew/brew
HEAD: 3332d3331b56e0aff675d3816d8ebfe564075299
Last commit: 8 hours ago
Branch: stable
Core tap JSON: 29 Apr 15:44 UTC
HOMEBREW_PREFIX: /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew
HOMEBREW_CASK_OPTS: []
HOMEBREW_DISPLAY: :0
HOMEBREW_MAKE_JOBS: 12
Homebrew Ruby: 3.4.3 => /var/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/vendor/portable-ruby/3.4.3/bin/ruby
CPU: dodeca-core 64-bit zen3
Clang: N/A
Git: 2.49.0 => /bin/git
Curl: 8.11.1 => /bin/curl
Kernel: Linux 6.14.3-300.fc42.x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
OS: Bluefin (Version: latest-42.20250429 / FROM Fedora Silverblue 42) (Archaeopteryx)
Host glibc: 2.41
/usr/bin/gcc: 15.1.1
/usr/bin/ruby: N/A
glibc: N/A
gcc@11: N/A
gcc: N/A
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: Some installed formulae are deprecated or disabled.
You should find replacements for the following formulae:
  fasttext

Description of issue

I have installed languagetool with brew install languagetool, when I start the service with

$ brew services start languagetool
==> Successfully started `languagetool` (label: homebrew.languagetool)

it looks as if it would be running successfully, but the test fails:

$ curl -d "language=en-US" -d "text=a simple test" http://localhost:8081/v2/check
curl: (7) Failed to connect to localhost port 8081 after 0 ms: Could not connect to server

So I check with systemctl the status and see that it has failed:

$ systemctl --user status homebrew.languagetool.service
× homebrew.languagetool.service - Homebrew generated unit for languagetool
     Loaded: loaded (/var/home/me/.config/systemd/user/homebrew.languagetool.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
    Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/user/service.d
             └─10-timeout-abort.conf
     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Tue 2025-04-29 17:59:34 CEST; 37s ago
   Duration: 29ms
 Invocation: 3c2d4fb50fd9470abe822e2b498425c6
    Process: 24896 ExecStart=/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/opt/languagetool/bin/languagetool-server --config /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/etc/languagetool/server.properties --port 8081 --allow-origin (code=exited, status=209/STDOUT)
   Main PID: 24896 (code=exited, status=209/STDOUT)

Apr 29 17:59:34 bluefin systemd[3256]: homebrew.languagetool.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5.
Apr 29 17:59:34 bluefin systemd[3256]: homebrew.languagetool.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Apr 29 17:59:34 bluefin systemd[3256]: homebrew.languagetool.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Apr 29 17:59:34 bluefin systemd[3256]: Failed to start homebrew.languagetool.service - Homebrew generated unit for languagetool.

Looking into journalctl --user I see the output recurring.

$ journalctl --user
[…]
Apr 29 17:59:33 bluefin systemd[3256]: Started homebrew.languagetool.service - Homebrew generated unit for languagetool.
Apr 29 17:59:33 bluefin (l-server)[24824]: homebrew.languagetool.service: Failed to set up standard output: No such file or directory
Apr 29 17:59:33 bluefin (l-server)[24824]: homebrew.languagetool.service: Failed at step STDOUT spawning /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/opt/languagetool/bin/languagetool-server: No such file or directory
Apr 29 17:59:33 bluefin systemd[3256]: homebrew.languagetool.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=209/STDOUT
Apr 29 17:59:33 bluefin systemd[3256]: homebrew.languagetool.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
[…]

However, if I start it manually with the same command that systemctl executes, it works.

$ /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/opt/languagetool/bin/languagetool-server --config /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/etc/languagetool/server.properties --port 8081 --allow-origin
2025-04-29 18:05:13.503 GMT+02:00 INFO  org.languagetool.server.DatabaseAccessOpenSource Not setting up database access, dbDriver is not configured
2025-04-29 16:05:13 +0000 Setting up thread pool with 10 threads
2025-04-29 18:05:15.170 GMT+02:00 INFO  org.languagetool.language.identifier.DefaultLanguageIdentifier Started fastText process for language identification: Binary /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/bin/fasttext with model @ /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/opt/fasttext/models/lid.176.bin
2025-04-29 18:05:15.180 GMT+02:00 INFO  org.languagetool.server.TextChecker A/B-Test enabled: []
2025-04-29 16:05:15 +0000 Starting LanguageTool 6.6 (build date: 2025-03-27 17:26:35 +0000, ac27103) server on http://localhost:8081...
2025-04-29 16:05:15 +0000 Server started

I assume there is some issue with the stdout not available for languagetool within the systemctl environment, as it is configured by homebrew. Am I missing some step, do I need to adjust the configuration first?

[SMillerDev]

That might be a bug in the configuration. Unfortunately I know nothing about languagetool, so if you find anything a pull request would be welcome.

[daeho-ro]

Open the formula file, with code or whatever

code $(brew --repo homebrew/core)/Formula/l/languagetool.rb

and add

  def post_install
    (var/"log/languagetool").mkpath
  end

before service do and reinstall, try again, please.

Maybe the log folder is not exist and so this can be happen.

[white-gecko]

This is great.

In

$ cat ~/.config/systemd/user/homebrew.languagetool.service
[Unit]
Description=Homebrew generated unit for languagetool

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart="/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/opt/languagetool/bin/languagetool-server" "--config" "/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/etc/languagetool/server.properties" "--port" "8081" "--allow-origin"
Restart=always
StandardOutput=append:/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/var/log/languagetool/languagetool-server.log
StandardError=append:/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/var/log/languagetool/languagetool-server.log

StandardOutput is defined, but the directory does not exist. So I have created /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/var/log/languagetool/ and it works.

But following your instructions brew --repo homebrew/core returns /var/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-core but only the directories until /var/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library exist, which is part of the https://github.com/Homebrew/brew repository. Looking around in the parent directories, I could not find the place of the Formula. (Sorry, I'm not that familiar with homebrew.)

So I have fixed it in my case for now, but not for the future and everyone.

[white-gecko]

I assume your snippet needs to go into https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask/blob/master/Casks/l/languagetool.rb, but I can't find service do in there.

[daeho-ro]

You are looking for a Cask definition but actually it should be a formula. Anyway, manually creating the folder is working so I will open a PR soon.

[daeho-ro]

• languagetool: add post-install to create log path homebrew-core#222317