pip install --pre Django==1.xb not found

[Elena Williams]

Pre-release version of Django cannot be installed using pip, even when pre-release flag is used.

This is a feature request (or report of feature incompleteness) not a bug.

We're developing against pre-release in anticipation of project launch after version release (and to assist bug-finding), the number of security releases recently has brought this to our attention as an extra layer of administration in this case.

Another scenario where this feature would have been useful was wanting to show someone pre-release version features in PyCon corridor-track but then needing to clarify that pip installation wasn't possible.

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Twitter discussion on 17-Sep-2013 went as follows:
Elena Williams @elequ
(Whilst got all up in @freakboy3742 's face about at PyConAU, asking again): why for no pip install --pre django==1.6b4 ? #sadpony

Russell Keith-Magee @freakboy3742
@elequ Historically, because PyPI would interpret 1.6b4 as a 'newer' release than 1.5.4. Need to update our release process.

Elena Williams @elequ
@freakboy3742 Cool :) Just double-checking the last part of that. In whose face is it that one gets for that? Is there a bug I can follow?

Russell Keith-Magee @freakboy3742
@elequ @ubernostrum is the grand master of releases. No ticket tracking this that I'm aware of.

James Bennett @ubernostrum
@freakboy3742 @elequ Historically we avoid putting prerelease packages on PyPI so as not to confuse installers looking for "newest".

Alex Gaynor @alex_gaynor
@ubernostrum @freakboy3742 @elequ We should be able to put a .wheel up there, since old installers don’t know about it.

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There may be a pre-existing ticket but searches from "prerelease", "pip pre" and some variations weren't forthcoming.

[Marc Tamlyn]

Yes please!

[Tim Graham]

We tried this for the 1.7 alpha but there was some problem so we had to take the package down from PyPI. I think Donald said he would try to look into it.

[Tim Graham]

Here is the twitter conversation reporting problems: ​https://twitter.com/lukesneeringer/status/431563673769750528

[Tim Graham]

The twitter conversation says to make this work "The link would be: ​https://pypi.python.org/pypi?%3Aaction=pkg_edit&name=django -- set 1.6.2 to Hide: No, and the rest to Yes. (Should only have to change 1.7a2)". We can try again for 1.8 alpha I suppose.

[Carl Meyer]

The reporter is mis-informed in that Twitter conversation. Hide and Show on PyPI affects only what versions you can see via the human-facing web UI, it has no impact on pip whatsoever.

We actually still don't know from that Twitter convo what the problem was, exactly -- it would have been useful to know what pip version the reporter was using. Newer pip versions should never install a non-final release unless you provide the --pre tag.

One possibility is that the reporter found the issue via tox, which (until recently) used the --pre flag with its pip installs by default.

[Tim Graham <timograham@…>]

In d9edd2f68f6edaa5e634a7d93b29fe97cb7312fe:

Fixed #21108 -- Updated how to release docs: prereleases now go to PyPI.