Too many MBs downloaded (perhaps)

[thistlillo]

Output of brew config

HOMEBREW_VERSION: 3.6.20
ORIGIN: https://github.com/Homebrew/brew
HEAD: 344d32bf7f40183359592ef81ca6486e0587981b
Last commit: 3 weeks ago
Core tap ORIGIN: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core
Core tap HEAD: 07702893543bdce479e21e7ea2c9003d83c38754
Core tap last commit: 46 minutes ago
Core tap branch: master
HOMEBREW_PREFIX: /opt/homebrew
HOMEBREW_CASK_OPTS: []
HOMEBREW_MAKE_JOBS: 8
Homebrew Ruby: 2.6.10 => /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/bin/ruby
CPU: octa-core 64-bit arm_firestorm_icestorm
Clang: 14.0.0 build 1400
Git: 2.37.1 => /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin/git
Curl: 7.86.0 => /usr/bin/curl
macOS: 13.2-arm64
CLT: 14.2.0.0.1.1668646533
Xcode: N/A
Rosetta 2: false

Output of brew doctor

Your system is ready to brew.

Description of issue

I have a curiosity.

From this page: https://fishshell.com it is possible to download the fish shell for several operating systems, including Mac OS. For Mac, it is possible to download a self-contained app that is ~30MB in size.

However, I installed the fish shell via homebrew: it downloaded plenty of stuffy, including openjdk and billions of libraries.

I actually do not know how many MBs it downloaded, but the only idk, that does not seem so necessary considering that the app is ~30MB, is more than 300MB.

Is there any way to become aware of the size of the packages, that:

1. a user is about to install (so BEFORE installation)

2. a user has installed (after INSTALLATION)

3. How are all the dependencies established? How can a 30MB standalone app result in hundreds of megabytes of brew casks?

[SMillerDev]

How are all the dependencies established?

They are defined by upstream

How can a 30MB standalone app result in hundreds of megabytes of brew casks?

https://docs.brew.sh/FAQ#why-does-brew-upgrade-formula-or-brew-install-formula-also-upgrade-a-bunch-of-other-stuff

[thistlillo]

Thank you, I did read something about that. But I have the HD icon on the desktop showing the free space and it went down 1 GB. I think I can only ask to the maintainer of fish on homebrew.

[gromgit]

But I have the HD icon on the desktop showing the free space and it went down 1 GB.

The link @SMillerDev posted explains why. Basically, installing or upgrading any formula will also update all of its outdated dependencies, then update all outdated formulae that depend on those just-updated formulae, etc. so forth.

That's the price of using a package ecosystem like Homebrew that's both evergreen and rigorously release-tested.

[thistlillo]

May be that's the reason: may be new dependencies were added to packages that got upgraded. I have found this: #57

that might explain what happened.

[carlocab]

Installing fish through brew requires ~40MB of space. fish itself is about 20MB, and depends on ncurses (~15MB) and pcre2 (~7MB).