Pin click version to avoid breaking changes

[smartYSC]

First Check

• I added a very descriptive title here.
• I used the GitHub search to find a similar question and didn't find it.
• I searched the Typer documentation, with the integrated search.
• I already searched in Google "How to X in Typer" and didn't find any information.
• I already read and followed all the tutorials in the docs and didn't find an answer.
• I already checked if it is not related to Typer but to Click.

Commit to Help

• I commit to help with one of those options 👆

Example Code

pip install typer

Description

We are using typer to create nice command line interfaces for our tools. We like it a lot because it is far superior than using pure click.

We also use our tools a lot in CI pipelines. However, with both recent minor version bumps of click, our pipelines started to fail and we had to fix dependencies all around.

In our Python project we pin typer to an exact version. The reason is, that according to Semantic Versioning, any version with MAJOR 0 can always contain breaking changes [0].

typer pins click to >= 8.0.0:

typer/pyproject.toml

Line 36 in dc07284

"click >= 8.0.0",

This would be fine if click would adhere to Sematic Versioning, as it would mean that any same MAJOR version would not contain any breaking changes [1].

However, click maintainer Pallets explicity states, that they are NOT using Sematic Versioning [2]. They claim to not introduce breaking changes, but the last two click minor versions (8.2.0 and 8.3.0) definitely were breaking on typer requiring versions 0.15.4, 0.16.0, 0.16.1, 0.17.5, and 0.18.0.

One could argue that it is my own fault to pin typer but not pinning click. But I think at this point typer should consider pinning click to a fixed version. typer could then update click with every release to the lastest-greatest version. typer has a much shorter release cycle anyway, so it is not like we would be missing out on the latest click version by pinning it.

So, what do you think?

[0] https://semver.org/#spec-item-4
[1] https://semver.org/#spec-item-8
[2] https://palletsprojects.com/versions#not-semver

Operating System

Linux

Operating System Details

No response

Typer Version

0.17.4

Python Version

3.12

Additional Context

No response

[svlandeg]

I personally wouldn't be in favour of pinning click to an exact version.

If we don't pin, downstream libraries can still pin themselves if they prefer to have a known, stable configuration.

But vice versa, if we pin, then we block other users from installing a newer version of Click if Typer hasn't made a release yet.

[smartYSC]

I would also not pin to an exaxt version. But similar to having pinned a minimum version, it might make sense to pin a maximum version. That would always be the curretn click version at the date of release for a new typer version, e.g.:

click>=8.0.0,<=8.3.0

As 8.3.0 is the most recent version. Next typer release you could easily also bump this click version.

I am fully aware that this is not ideal, but the fact that click breaks on typer so often may be more important than allowing downstream users to use any click version they want?

To be fair, people are using typer to NOT deal with click directly, so they are likely fine with typer limiting the click version to a range that is known to be working.