How to stop brew install up to three (sic!) different Python versions simultaneously for simple poetry app?

[shomeax]

Output of brew config

HOMEBREW_VERSION: 4.4.11
ORIGIN: https://github.com/Homebrew/brew
HEAD: ad356d365837a691a52dfec32b3fb5f282f3aefc
Last commit: 2 days ago
Branch: stable
Core tap JSON: 11 Dec 00:29 UTC
Core cask tap JSON: 11 Dec 00:29 UTC
HOMEBREW_PREFIX: /usr/local
HOMEBREW_CASK_OPTS: []
HOMEBREW_DISPLAY: /private/tmp/com.apple.launchd.EJcmDN81is/org.xquartz:0
HOMEBREW_MAKE_JOBS: 12
Homebrew Ruby: 3.3.6 => /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/vendor/portable-ruby/3.3.6/bin/ruby
CPU: dodeca-core 64-bit kabylake
Clang: 12.0.5 build 1205
Git: 2.23.0 => /usr/local/bin/git
Curl: 7.64.1 => /usr/bin/curl
macOS: 11.4-x86_64
CLT: 12.5.0.22.9
Xcode: N/A

Output of brew doctor

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Update them from Software Update in System Preferences.

If that doesn't show you any updates, run:
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  sudo xcode-select --install

Alternatively, manually download them from:
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You should download the Command Line Tools for Xcode 13.2.1.


Warning: Some installed formulae are deprecated or disabled.
You should find replacements for the following formulae:
  [email protected]

Warning: You have unlinked kegs in your Cellar.
Leaving kegs unlinked can lead to build-trouble and cause formulae that depend on
those kegs to fail to run properly once built. Run `brew link` on these:
  cmake
  poetry
  tcl-tk

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Description of issue

% brew upgrade poetry

...
Installing dependencies for poetry: cmake, ninja, ca-certificates, openssl@3, readline, sqlite, xz, pkgconf, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], certifi, pycparser and cffi
...

Well, it's understandable the poetry can run with any of three Python on the wild (3.11-3.13), but why on the earth does formulae install all three? Am I supposed to juggle them just for fun?

Is there any hidden undocumented setting for the brew to hint it to prefer, say, Python 3.12 and don't blow my SSD with other stuff?

[gromgit]

brew deps poetry only lists [email protected] for me. What's the output of brew deps --tree poetry on your system?

[shomeax]

% brew deps --tree poetry
poetry
├── certifi
│   └── ca-certificates
├── cffi
│   └── pycparser
└── [email protected]
    ├── mpdecimal
    ├── openssl@3
    │   └── ca-certificates
    ├── sqlite
    │   └── readline
    └── xz

[shomeax]

full brew log here
https://gist.github.com/shomeax/ebf7c64c56d0871110239849ddf9fc02

[shomeax]

is it possible that brew decides to upgrade other Pythons (3.11, 3.12) just because casks were old and "why should he ever use old software, arr"? :)

I did first pin them with brew pin [email protected] but that didn't help

[ZhongRuoyu]

is it possible that brew decides to upgrade other Pythons (3.11, 3.12) just because casks were old and "why should he ever use old software, arr"? :)

Sort of, but a more rational explanation is that Homebrew is a rolling package manager and only the latest combination of formulae are actively tested. So, all it does is update the outdated formulae in the dependency tree to make sure that things work.

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

[ZhongRuoyu]

This is because poetry depends on certifi, which in turn depends on the three Pythons you saw at build time. This is to ensure that it (certifi) works for the three latest Python major releases. Similarly, depenedencies cffi and pycparser (transitive via cffi) also include two Python build dependencies. You can see that with brew deps --tree --annotate --include-build poetry.

Normally, installing these formulae would not require installing multiple Python versions for most users because they are only needed at build time. You need to build them from source only because you are on macOS Big Sur which has ceased to be officially supported. You are advised to update to a supported macOS release so that you can use the pre-built bottles. If that's not feasible, you can also brew edit $formula (substitute $formula with certifi, cffi, pycparser) and drop those Python dependencies that you don't need. But please bear in mind that this unsupported so you're supposed to solve build problems yourself, if any.

[shomeax]

 % brew deps --tree --annotate --include-build poetry
poetry
├── certifi 
│   ├── ca-certificates 
│   ├── [email protected]  [build]
│   │   ├── mpdecimal 
│   │   ├── openssl@3 
│   │   │   └── ca-certificates 
│   │   ├── sqlite 
│   │   │   └── readline 
│   │   ├── xz 
│   │   └── pkgconf  [build]
│   ├── [email protected]  [build]
│   │   ├── mpdecimal 
│   │   ├── openssl@3 
│   │   │   └── ca-certificates 
│   │   ├── sqlite 
│   │   │   └── readline 
│   │   ├── xz 
│   │   └── pkgconf  [build]
│   └── [email protected]  [build]
│       ├── mpdecimal 
│       ├── openssl@3 
│       │   └── ca-certificates 
│       ├── sqlite 
│       │   └── readline 
│       ├── xz 
│       └── pkgconf  [build]
├── cffi 
│   ├── pycparser 
│   │   ├── [email protected]  [build]
│   │   │   ├── mpdecimal 
│   │   │   ├── openssl@3 
│   │   │   │   └── ca-certificates 
│   │   │   ├── sqlite 
│   │   │   │   └── readline 
│   │   │   ├── xz 
│   │   │   └── pkgconf  [build]
│   │   └── [email protected]  [build]
│   │       ├── mpdecimal 
│   │       ├── openssl@3 
│   │       │   └── ca-certificates 
│   │       ├── sqlite 
│   │       │   └── readline 
│   │       ├── xz 
│   │       └── pkgconf  [build]
│   ├── [email protected]  [build]
│   │   ├── mpdecimal 
│   │   ├── openssl@3 
│   │   │   └── ca-certificates 
│   │   ├── sqlite 
│   │   │   └── readline 
│   │   ├── xz 
│   │   └── pkgconf  [build]
│   └── [email protected]  [build]
│       ├── mpdecimal 
│       ├── openssl@3 
│       │   └── ca-certificates 
│       ├── sqlite 
│       │   └── readline 
│       ├── xz 
│       └── pkgconf  [build]
├── [email protected] 
│   ├── mpdecimal 
│   ├── openssl@3 
│   │   └── ca-certificates 
│   ├── sqlite 
│   │   └── readline 
│   ├── xz 
│   └── pkgconf  [build]
├── cmake  [build]
└── ninja  [build]

Aha!

Well, thanks for clarification, upgrade is not feasible at the current time, so I guess I'll just wait for a little longer while it builds itself.
Nevertheless, it works, and that is what is important.

Btw, I just want to say thank you so much for the fact that brew is still working even for the unsupported MacOs version, that says a lot about quality of the ecosystem and the software, and means a lot for me as a user!