RuntimeError: Will not overwrite

[uluqat]

Output of brew config

[9:57:55] ~ % brew config
HOMEBREW_VERSION: 5.1.0
ORIGIN: https://github.com/Homebrew/brew
HEAD: 4135badeddc3899aa2e89d3ea1caee320c55d299
Last commit: 7 days ago
Branch: stable
Core tap JSON: 18 Mar 00:10 UTC
Core cask tap JSON: 18 Mar 00:10 UTC
HOMEBREW_PREFIX: /opt/homebrew
HOMEBREW_CASK_OPTS: []
HOMEBREW_DOWNLOAD_CONCURRENCY: 16
HOMEBREW_FORBID_PACKAGES_FROM_PATHS: set
HOMEBREW_MAKE_JOBS: 8
Homebrew Ruby: 4.0.1 => /opt/homebrew/Library/Homebrew/vendor/portable-ruby/4.0.1/bin/ruby
CPU: octa-core 64-bit arm_blizzard_avalanche
Clang: 17.0.0 build 1700
Git: 2.50.1 => /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin/git
Curl: 8.7.1 => /usr/bin/curl
macOS: 26.3.1-arm64
CLT: 26.3.0.0.1.1771626560
Xcode: N/A
Rosetta 2: false

Output of brew doctor

[10:01:00] ~ % brew doctor
Your system is ready to brew.

Description of issue

I use the master build of yt-dlp, installed as instructed in their patch notes with the command:

brew update && brew install --HEAD yt-dlp

and I check for new versions of the master build as instructed in their patch notes like this:

brew upgrade --fetch-HEAD yt-dlp

Normally, if there is not a new update, it just gives a simple one line warning that there isn't a new version. But for the past couple of weeks, something different happens and it breaks the yt-dlp install, requiring that yt-dlp be uninstalled and reinstalled. The yt-dlp dev bashonly told me to "report it to homebrew". A suggestion has been made to use --overwrite but I never had to do that before.

I don't have any other Macs to test this on.

[5:07:09] ~ % yt-dlp --version
2026.03.17
[5:07:41] ~ % brew upgrade --fetch-HEAD yt-dlp
✔︎ JSON API cask.jws.json Downloaded 15.4MB/ 15.4MB
✔︎ JSON API formula.jws.json Downloaded 32.0MB/ 32.0MB
==> Upgrading 1 outdated package:
yt-dlp HEAD-7fd74d1 -> HEAD-7fd74d1
==> Fetching downloads for: yt-dlp
✔︎ API Source yt-dlp.rb Verified 4.4KB/ 4.4KB
✔︎ Resource yt-dlp--brotli Verified 7.4MB/ 7.4MB
✔︎ Resource yt-dlp--charset-normalizer Verified 134.8KB/134.8KB
✔︎ Resource yt-dlp--idna Verified 194.6KB/194.6KB
✔︎ Resource yt-dlp--mutagen Verified 1.3MB/ 1.3MB
✔︎ Resource yt-dlp--pycryptodomex Verified 4.9MB/ 4.9MB
✔︎ Resource yt-dlp--requests Verified 134.5KB/134.5KB
✔︎ Resource yt-dlp--urllib3 Verified 435.6KB/435.6KB
✔︎ Resource yt-dlp--websockets Verified 179.3KB/179.3KB
✔︎ Resource yt-dlp--yt-dlp-ejs Verified 96.0KB/ 96.0KB
✔︎ Formula yt-dlp (HEAD-7fd74d1)
==> Upgrading yt-dlp
HEAD-7fd74d1 -> HEAD-7fd74d1
==> make lazy-extractors pypi-files
Error: An exception occurred within a child process:
RuntimeError: Will not overwrite /opt/homebrew/Cellar/yt-dlp/HEAD-7fd74d1/libexec/lib/python3.14/site-packages/homebrew_deps.pth
[5:08:00] ~ % yt-dlp --version
zsh: command not found: yt-dlp

[carlocab]

I've seen this happen occasionally before, but haven't gotten around to digging into it. I believe the issue comes from the old and new versions actually being the same. See:

==> Upgrading yt-dlp
HEAD-7fd74d1 -> HEAD-7fd74d1

It may be worth reporting this to Homebrew/brew.