Editable installation with extras

[detlefla]

When I try to install extras for an editable installation, e.g. uv pip install -e . --all-extras, uv refuses this with an error message:

error: Requesting extras requires a `pyproject.toml`, `setup.cfg`, or `setup.py` file.

Without --extra or ´--all-extras` everything is fine, so the pyproject.toml file is obviously present and can be processed.

Particularly with an install -e, however, it's often desirable to install the dev dependencies; uv pip install doesn't have any kind of --dev flag (unless I miss something).

I haven't provided a full working sample as I think this behaviour doesn't depend on any particular conditions, but of course I'll try to prepare a stripped-down sample if it helps. I'm using uv 0.4.17.

[notatallshaw-gts]

Don't you want uv pip install -e .[my-extra]?

That's how it works for pip, and I believe uv is copying the behavior here.

[detlefla]

OK, thanks for pointing this out, in fact it works. It's a bit surprising that --all-extras doesn't work then, and it seems that an extra [dev] is apparently better suited for development than using tool.uv.dev-dependencies.

But I can very well live with that, thank you for doing a great job with uv.

[notatallshaw-gts]

It's a bit surprising that --all-extras doesn't work then

--all-extras isn't an option from pip, it's an option from pip-compile, so while I'm sure that uv could add it, it's behavior is not currently defined, e.g. would you wanting it installing every extra from every transitive dependency?

[detlefla]

As this option appears in the output for uv pip install --help and this output looks significantly different from uv pip compile --help, I thought this option was related to the install subcommand.

In fact IMO it wouldn't be useful to apply this to all transitive dependencies, no.

[notatallshaw-gts]

As this option appears in the output for uv pip install --help

Yeah:

$ uv pip install --help | grep "all-extras"
      --all-extras                           Include all optional dependencies

$ ls pyproject.toml
pyproject.toml

$ uv pip install . --all-extras
error: Requesting extras requires a `pyproject.toml`, `setup.cfg`, or `setup.py` file.

This looks like a bug, --all-extras should not be available for uv pip install? Or the docs / error message isn't clear when it should work? @charliermarsh ?

[charliermarsh]

--all-extras applies to passing a pyproject.toml or similar directly -- like uv pip install ./pyproject.toml --all-extras. There's no defined syntax for enabling extras there, unlike when passing a path (uv pip install .[dev]).

[notatallshaw-gts]

That makes sense, the --help and the error are both pretty unclear though if you're not already familiar with that exact use case.

If no one else does I might write a PR, or else I will be confused when I come across this again in a years time.

[pamelafox]

I was just writing up a similar experience when I found this one. What I wrote up--

I attempted to install a project that had a pyproject.toml in the root and several extras defined:

(flask-admin) flask-admin % uv pip install -e . --all-extras                  
error: Requesting extras requires a `pyproject.toml`, `setup.cfg`, or `setup.py` file.

It worked when I ran:

(flask-admin) flask-admin % uv pip install -e . --all-extras -r pyproject.toml

It seemed unnecessary, since -e . works fine when not specifying extras, so I was surprised I needed to explicitly pass in the pyproject.toml when asking for extras.

I think another example in the documentation could be helpful. I was looking through https://docs.astral.sh/uv/pip/packages/#editable-packages for guidance.