Merge pull request #10450 from pradyunsg/docs/requirements-format

Add a dedicated page for "Requirements File Format"
pypa · Sep 17, 2021 · 89326c8 · 89326c8
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diff --git a/docs/html/cli/pip_install.rst b/docs/html/cli/pip_install.rst
@@ -149,120 +149,10 @@ profile:
    ``setup_requires``.
 
 
-.. _`Requirements File Format`:
-
 Requirements File Format
 ------------------------
 
-Each line of the requirements file indicates something to be installed,
-and like arguments to :ref:`pip install`, the following forms are supported::
-
-    [[--option]...]
-    <requirement specifier> [; markers] [[--option]...]
-    <archive url/path>
-    [-e] <local project path>
-    [-e] <vcs project url>
-
-For details on requirement specifiers, see :ref:`Requirement Specifiers`.
-
-See the :ref:`pip install Examples<pip install Examples>` for examples of all these forms.
-
-A line that begins with ``#`` is treated as a comment and ignored. Whitespace
-followed by a ``#`` causes the ``#`` and the remainder of the line to be
-treated as a comment.
-
-A line ending in an unescaped ``\`` is treated as a line continuation
-and the newline following it is effectively ignored.
-
-Comments are stripped *after* line continuations are processed.
-
-To interpret the requirements file in UTF-8 format add a comment
-``# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-`` to the first or second line of the file.
-
-The following options are supported:
-
-.. pip-requirements-file-options-ref-list::
-
-Please note that the above options are global options, and should be specified on their individual lines.
-The options which can be applied to individual requirements are
-:ref:`--install-option <install_--install-option>`, :ref:`--global-option <install_--global-option>` and ``--hash``.
-
-For example, to specify :ref:`--pre <install_--pre>`, :ref:`--no-index <install_--no-index>` and two
-:ref:`--find-links <install_--find-links>` locations:
-
-::
-
---pre
---no-index
---find-links /my/local/archives
---find-links http://some.archives.com/archives
-
-
-If you wish, you can refer to other requirements files, like this::
-
-    -r more_requirements.txt
-
-You can also refer to :ref:`constraints files <Constraints Files>`, like this::
-
-    -c some_constraints.txt
-
-.. _`Using Environment Variables`:
-
-Using Environment Variables
-^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
-
-Since version 10, pip supports the use of environment variables inside the
-requirements file. You can now store sensitive data (tokens, keys, etc.) in
-environment variables and only specify the variable name for your requirements,
-letting pip lookup the value at runtime. This approach aligns with the commonly
-used `12-factor configuration pattern <https://12factor.net/config>`_.
-
-You have to use the POSIX format for variable names including brackets around
-the uppercase name as shown in this example: ``${API_TOKEN}``. pip will attempt
-to find the corresponding environment variable defined on the host system at
-runtime.
-
-.. note::
-
-   There is no support for other variable expansion syntaxes such as
-   ``$VARIABLE`` and ``%VARIABLE%``.
-
-
-.. _`Example Requirements File`:
-
-Example Requirements File
-^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
-
-Use ``pip install -r example-requirements.txt`` to install::
-
-    #
-    ####### example-requirements.txt #######
-    #
-    ###### Requirements without Version Specifiers ######
-    nose
-    nose-cov
-    beautifulsoup4
-    #
-    ###### Requirements with Version Specifiers ######
-    #   See https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0440/#version-specifiers
-    docopt == 0.6.1             # Version Matching. Must be version 0.6.1
-    keyring >= 4.1.1            # Minimum version 4.1.1
-    coverage != 3.5             # Version Exclusion. Anything except version 3.5
-    Mopidy-Dirble ~= 1.1        # Compatible release. Same as >= 1.1, == 1.*
-    #
-    ###### Refer to other requirements files ######
-    -r other-requirements.txt
-    #
-    #
-    ###### A particular file ######
-    ./downloads/numpy-1.9.2-cp34-none-win32.whl
-    http://wxpython.org/Phoenix/snapshot-builds/wxPython_Phoenix-3.0.3.dev1820+49a8884-cp34-none-win_amd64.whl
-    #
-    ###### Additional Requirements without Version Specifiers ######
-    #   Same as 1st section, just here to show that you can put things in any order.
-    rejected
-    green
-    #
+This section has been moved to :doc:`../reference/requirements-file-format`.
 
 .. _`Requirement Specifiers`:
 

diff --git a/docs/html/index.md b/docs/html/index.md
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ getting-started
 installation
 user_guide
 topics/index
+reference/index
 cli/index
 ```
 

diff --git a/docs/html/reference/index.md b/docs/html/reference/index.md
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+# Reference
+
+Reference provides information about various file formats, interfaces and
+interoperability standards that pip utilises/implements.
+
+```{toctree}
+:titlesonly:
+
+requirements-file-format
+```
diff --git a/docs/html/reference/index.rst b/docs/html/reference/index.rst
diff --git a/docs/html/reference/requirements-file-format.md b/docs/html/reference/requirements-file-format.md
@@ -0,0 +1,145 @@
+# Requirements File Format
+
+Requirements files serve as a list of items to be installed by pip, when
+using {ref}`pip install`. Files that use this format are often called
+"pip requirements.txt files", since `requirements.txt` is usually what
+these files are named (although, that is not a requirement).
+
+```{note}
+The requirements file format is closely tied to a number of internal details of
+pip (e.g., pip's command line options). The basic format is relatively stable
+and portable but the full syntax, as described here, is only intended for
+consumption by pip, and other tools should take that into account before using
+it for their own purposes.
+```
+
+## Structure
+
+Each line of the requirements file indicates something to be installed,
+or arguments to {ref}`pip install`. The following forms are supported:
+
+- `[[--option]...]`
+- `<requirement specifier> [; markers] [[--option]...]`
+- `<archive url/path>`
+- `[-e] <local project path>`
+- `[-e] <vcs project url>`
+
+For details on requirement specifiers, see {ref}`Requirement Specifiers`. For
+examples of all these forms, see {ref}`pip install Examples`.
+
+### Encoding
+
+Requirements files are `utf-8` encoding by default and also support
+{pep}`263` style comments to change the encoding (i.e.
+`# -*- coding: <encoding name> -*-`).
+
+### Line continuations
+
+A line ending in an unescaped `\` is treated as a line continuation
+and the newline following it is effectively ignored.
+
+### Comments
+
+A line that begins with `#` is treated as a comment and ignored. Whitespace
+followed by a `#` causes the `#` and the remainder of the line to be
+treated as a comment.
+
+Comments are stripped _after_ line continuations are processed.
+
+## Supported options
+
+Requirements files only supports certain pip install options, which are listed
+below.
+
+### Global options
+
+The following options have an effect on the _entire_ `pip install` run, and
+must be specified on their individual lines.
+
+```{eval-rst}
+.. pip-requirements-file-options-ref-list::
+```
+
+````{admonition} Example
+To specify {ref}`--pre <install_--pre>`, {ref}`--no-index <install_--no-index>`
+and two {ref}`--find-links <install_--find-links>` locations:
+
+```
+--pre
+--no-index
+--find-links /my/local/archives
+--find-links http://some.archives.com/archives
+```
+````
+
+### Per-requirement options
+
+The options which can be applied to individual requirements are:
+
+- {ref}`--install-option <install_--install-option>`
+- {ref}`--global-option <install_--global-option>`
+- `--hash` (for {ref}`Hash-Checking mode`)
+
+If you wish, you can refer to other requirements files, like this:
+
+```
+-r more_requirements.txt
+```
+
+You can also refer to {ref}`constraints files <Constraints Files>`, like this:
+
+```
+-c some_constraints.txt
+```
+
+## Using environment variables
+
+```{versionadded} 10.0
+
+```
+
+pip supports the use of environment variables inside the
+requirements file.
+
+You have to use the POSIX format for variable names including brackets around
+the uppercase name as shown in this example: `${API_TOKEN}`. pip will attempt
+to find the corresponding environment variable defined on the host system at
+runtime.
+
+```{note}
+There is no support for other variable expansion syntaxes such as `$VARIABLE`
+and `%VARIABLE%`.
+```
+
+You can now store sensitive data (tokens, keys, etc.) in environment variables
+and only specify the variable name for your requirements, letting pip lookup
+the value at runtime. This approach aligns with the commonly used
+[12-factor configuration pattern](https://12factor.net/config).
+
+## Example
+
+```
+###### Requirements without Version Specifiers ######
+pytest
+pytest-cov
+beautifulsoup4
+
+###### Requirements with Version Specifiers ######
+#   See https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0440/#version-specifiers
+docopt == 0.6.1             # Version Matching. Must be version 0.6.1
+keyring >= 4.1.1            # Minimum version 4.1.1
+coverage != 3.5             # Version Exclusion. Anything except version 3.5
+Mopidy-Dirble ~= 1.1        # Compatible release. Same as >= 1.1, == 1.*
+
+###### Refer to other requirements files ######
+-r other-requirements.txt
+
+###### A particular file ######
+./downloads/numpy-1.9.2-cp34-none-win32.whl
+http://wxpython.org/Phoenix/snapshot-builds/wxPython_Phoenix-3.0.3.dev1820+49a8884-cp34-none-win_amd64.whl
+
+###### Additional Requirements without Version Specifiers ######
+#   Same as 1st section, just here to show that you can put things in any order.
+rejected
+green
+```