On Tue, 29 Jan 2019 at 09:51, Jan MusĂlek
Well, yes, that's basically it. I don't think that there is anything wrong with PEP 508 pointing only at specific versions. BUT, it's widely proposed as replacement for dependency links, which it's clearly not because of this issue.
OK, I think that it may well be in that case that URL specifiers don't satisfy that specific use case that dependency_links did[1]. But URL specifiers were *intended* to replace dependency_links, so if they don't do so then it's likely because users of dependency_links didn't successfully explain their requirements, and something got missed as a result.
If you think that PEP 508 should not be considered to be dependency links replacement, just say so and I can take this issue somewhere else.
It would be more accurate to say that PEP 508 is considered to be a replacement for dependency links in all of the use cases *that we were made aware of at the time*. Now that new use cases are being raised, we'll need to look at them. So I'd encourage you to continue this discussion here, where we can find a resolution that properly meets people's requirements. It may be that's (an extension of) URL specifiers, or it may be that something else is needed. But the first step has to be a well-defined standard that satisfies people's requirements. Dependency links have multiple problems, so simply continuing to support them, or trying to write a PEP that just says "do exactly what dependency_links do" isn't going to resolve this issue.
(probably back to pip maintainers, asking them to revive dependency links until suitable replacement is proposed).
I'm a pip maintainer, and the other maintainers monitor this list, so your comments are being heard here, no particular need to split the conversation over 2 different places :-) Paul [1] It's quite conceivable that there are other cases like this, too. But until people hitting problems are willing to discuss requirements and potential approaches to a solution, in the same way that you're doing here, we can't really say anything more.