pypa / pypa/packaging.python.org

Document real compatibility tag interpretation

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Description

Issue Description

The compatibility tag section of the documentation is lifted directly from PEP-425 and covers how compatibility tags are constructed.

However, it is incomplete and inaccurate regarding how those tags are matched by pip. The described algorithm is:

This example list is for an installer running under CPython 3.3 on a linux_x86_64 system. It is in order from most-preferred (a distribution with a compiled extension module, built for the current version of Python) to least-preferred (a pure-Python distribution built with an older version of Python):

  1. cp33-cp33m-linux_x86_64
  2. cp33-abi3-linux_x86_64
  3. cp3-abi3-linux_x86_64
  4. cp33-none-linux_x86_64*
  5. cp3-none-linux_x86_64*
  6. py33-none-linux_x86_64*
  7. py3-none-linux_x86_64*
  8. cp33-none-any
  9. cp3-none-any
  10. py33-none-any
  11. py3-none-any
  12. py32-none-any
  13. py31-none-any
  14. py30-none-any

This is modified by "Compressed Tag Sets" but that's not relevant to this issue.

From this we can surmise, for a CPython version X.Y:

  • It can match if python is cpXY and abi is cpXY*.
  • It can match if python is in cpXY, cpX and abi is abi3
  • It can match if python is in cpXY, cpX, pyXY, pyX and abi is none
  • It can also match any pyXZ-none-any for Z < Y

This is not the actual algorithm used by pip.

In particular I'm aware of these rules obeyed by pip in practice (but I haven't found a spec):

  • It can also match any cpXZ-abi3 for Z < Y
  • It can also match any pyXZ-none-manylinux* for Z < Y

Given these are valid, they must be in the ordering somewhere, and it should be documented where.

Some examples illustrating these rules (pip 24.3.1, python 3.13):

$ .venv/bin/pip --version
pip 24.3.1 from /home/mauve/dev/demo/.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pip (python 3.13)
$ .venv/bin/pip install --dry-run solace_pubsubplus --no-deps --no-cache
Looking in indexes: https://artifactory/pypi/simple/
Collecting solace_pubsubplus
  Downloading https://artifactory/pypi/packages/packages/5e/33/e5923f962b89b5a63eac2c0f7493abb53e7a1054a1da580c0037fd51713f/solace_pubsubplus-1.9.0-py36-none-manylinux_2_12_x86_64.whl (4.4 MB)
     ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 4.4/4.4 MB 549.6 MB/s eta 0:00:00
Would install solace-pubsubplus-1.9.0
$ .venv/bin/pip install --dry-run argon2_cffi_bindings --no-deps --no-cache
Looking in indexes: https://artifactory/pypi/simple/
Collecting argon2_cffi_bindings
  Downloading https://artifactory/pypi/packages/packages/ec/f7/378254e6dd7ae6f31fe40c8649eea7d4832a42243acaf0f1fff9083b2bed/argon2_cffi_bindings-21.2.0-cp36-abi3-manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux2014_x86_64.whl (86 kB)
Would install argon2-cffi-bindings-21.2.0

Given also that Compressed Tag Sets modify the whole algorithm, making it about set intersection, it would also be better to incorporate them into a description of the algorithm too.

Code of Conduct
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Contributor guide

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the platform compatibility tags documentation's compatibility tag section and compare its PEP-425 ordering with the pip 24.3.1 examples in the issue. Research the actual ordering, including Compressed Tag Sets and older cp/py manylinux matches, then document it so the described algorithm matches pip behavior and the examples are explained.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
documentation
Issue type
Documentation
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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