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Private use only fields -> Rarely used fields
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Paul Ganssle made a good case that it's better to be
descriptive regarding Provides-Dist and Obsoletes-Dist
(it's a matter of objective fact that they're rarely used, and
installers ignore them completely), rather than attempting
to be retroactively prescriptive.
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ncoghlan authored May 29, 2018
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Showing 1 changed file with 14 additions and 9 deletions.
23 changes: 14 additions & 9 deletions source/specifications/core-metadata.rst
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Expand Up @@ -562,17 +562,22 @@ respectively.
It is legal to specify ``Provides-Extra:`` without referencing it in any
``Requires-Dist:``.

Fields for Private Use Only
===========================

The current design of the fields in this section doesn't take into account
the potential for distributions on a public index server (such as
`PyPI <https://pypi.org>`__) to include disputed or deliberately misleading
information.
Rarely Used Fields
==================

The fields in this section are currently rarely used, as their design
was inspired by comparable mechanisms in Linux package management systems,
and it isn't at all clear how tools should interpret them in the context
of an open index server such as `PyPI <https://pypi.org>`__).

As a result, popular installation tools ignore them completely, which in
turn means there is little incentive for package publishers to set them
appropriately. However, they're retained in the metadata specification,
as they're still potentially useful for informational purposes, and can
also be used for their originally intended purpose in combination with
a curated package repository.

As a result, they should only be used in combination with curated
package repositories, and installation tools are expected to ignore
them when working with public index servers.

Provides-Dist (multiple use)
----------------------------
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