mactex install several 100 gigabytes?

[Idg772]

Output of brew config

HOMEBREW_VERSION: 5.1.5
ORIGIN: https://github.com/Homebrew/brew
HEAD: ac782bcd32ff3fb93fbac38ee5785dd2ccd95bad
Last commit: 5 days ago
Branch: stable
Core tap JSON: 12 Apr 19:58 UTC
Core cask tap JSON: 12 Apr 19:58 UTC
HOMEBREW_PREFIX: /opt/homebrew
HOMEBREW_CASK_OPTS: []
HOMEBREW_DOWNLOAD_CONCURRENCY: 16
HOMEBREW_FORBID_PACKAGES_FROM_PATHS: set
HOMEBREW_MAKE_JOBS: 8
Homebrew Ruby: 4.0.2 => /opt/homebrew/Library/Homebrew/vendor/portable-ruby/4.0.2_1/bin/ruby
CPU: octa-core 64-bit arm_ibiza
Clang: 16.0.0 build 1600
Git: 2.47.1 => /opt/homebrew/bin/git
Curl: 8.6.0 => /usr/bin/curl
macOS: 14.5-arm64
CLT: 16.0.0.0.1.1724870825
Xcode: N/A
Rosetta 2: false

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 casks are deprecated or disabled.
You should find replacements for the following casks:
  lyx
  openemu

Warning: A newer Command Line Tools release is available.
Update them from Software Update in System Settings.

If that doesn't show you any updates, run:
  sudo rm -rf /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools
  sudo xcode-select --install

Alternatively, manually download them from:
  https://developer.apple.com/download/all/.
You should download the Command Line Tools for Xcode 16.2.



This is a Tier 2 configuration:
  https://docs.brew.sh/Support-Tiers#tier-2
You can report issues with Tier 2 configurations to Homebrew/* repositories!
Read the above document before opening any issues or PRs.


Warning: Some installed formulae are deprecated or disabled.
You should find replacements for the following formulae:
  icu4c@76
  icu4c@77
  neofetch

Warning: /usr/bin occurs before /opt/homebrew/bin in your PATH.
This means that system-provided programs will be used instead of those
provided by Homebrew. Consider setting your PATH so that
/opt/homebrew/bin occurs before /usr/bin. Here is a one-liner:
  echo 'export PATH="/opt/homebrew/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc

The following tools exist at both paths:
  git
  git-receive-pack
  git-shell
  git-upload-archive
  git-upload-pack
  openssl
  pip3
  pp
  python3

Warning: Homebrew's "sbin" was not found in your PATH but you have installed
formulae that put executables in /opt/homebrew/sbin.
Consider setting your PATH for example like so:
  echo 'export PATH="/opt/homebrew/sbin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc

Warning: Some installed formulae are missing dependencies.
You should `brew install` the missing dependencies:
  brew install expat tree-sitter

Run `brew missing` for more details.

Description of issue

Updating casks and mactex was 307 gigs. did ctrl + c and did
brew uninstall --cask mactex
brew install --cask mactex

which was still 307 gigs. Killed the process again and did
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/Homebrew/downloads/mactex
brew cleanup -s
HOMEBREW_NO_RESUME=1 brew install --cask mactex

the new download was 321 gb.

Killed the process again and did
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/Homebrew/downloads/mactex
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/Homebrew/*
HOMEBREW_NO_RESUME=1 HOMEBREW_CURL_RETRIES=1 brew install --cask mactex

this was still 321 gb.

from https://www.tug.org/mactex/mactex-download.html
The Size is 6.4G - 24 March 2026

The MD5 sum is cf32947fa65b910534d1be5c17c5a137

The Sha512 sum is 68a62ac1d9e94bc049a64997bb60bd5969b5a82f5e16ad18cb776947e9f109c74be56ec9abbd2569b3abd1373929fe39586a7bb8c2179a72d9b914a513055623

I have honestly no idea why homebrew thinks it 300+ gigs. I would let it try for the sake of science but that's bigger than my disk. Any help is appreciated

Relevant casks

mac

[SMillerDev]

Where exactly does it say that? Because I can't reproduce it, and you haven't shown anything either.

[Idg772]

Updating macos and that appears to have fixed the issue