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{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"installing google-cloud-python libraries leads to accidentally installing release candidates of dependencies","articleBody":"### Determine this is the right repository\n\n- [x] I determined this is the correct repository in which to report this bug.\n\n### Summary of the issue\n\n**Context**\n\nInstalling release versions of google-cloud-python libraries with current pip leads to accidentally installing release candidates of indirect dependencies.\n\nAs an example, if I do `pip install google-cloud-kms==3.4.0` I currently end up getting grpcio version 1.71.0rc2 -- a release candidate. \n\nThis behaviour is a result of \n* pip fixing its pre-release specifier behaviour:   _\"Including a pre-release version with these specifiers now implies accepting pre-releases (e.g., \u003c2.0dev can include 1.0rc1)\"_ (https://github.com/pypa/pip/blob/main/NEWS.rst#2501-2025-02-09)\n* All google-cloud-python libraries using dependency specifiers like `googleapis-common-protos\u003c2.0.0dev` -- this is incorrect and should never include \"dev\"\n\n**Expected Behavior:**\n\n* Installing google-cloud-python projects should not lead to installing release candidates of indirect dependencies\n* pre-release version specifiers (such as \"X.Y.Zdev\") should not be used when defining library dependencies\n\n\n**Actual Behavior:**\n\ngoogle-cloud-kms projects use pre-release version specifiers (specifically `\u003cX.Y.Zdev`) in their dependencies.  This leads to accidentally installing release candidates of indirect dependencies.\n\n### API client name and version\n\n_No response_\n\n### Reproduction steps:\n\n```bash\n# start with empty virtualenv. Upgrade to current pip\npip install -U pip \n# Install a release version of a google-cloud-python package\npip install google-cloud-kms==3.4.0\n```\n\n### Reproduction steps: actual results\n\n```bash\n$ pip show grpcio | grep Version\nVersion: 1.71.0rc2\n```\n\n\n### Reproduction steps: expected results\n\n```bash\n$ pip show grpcio | grep Version\nVersion: 1.70.0\n```\n\n\n### OS \u0026 version + platform\n\n_No response_\n\n### Python environment\n\nPython 3.12.8\n\n### Python dependencies\n\nPackage                  Version\n------------------------ ---------\npip                      25.0.1\n\n\n### Additional context\n\n_No response_","author":{"url":"https://github.com/jku","@type":"Person","name":"jku"},"datePublished":"2025-03-03T14:49:00.000Z","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/CommentAction","userInteractionCount":0},"url":"https://github.com/13585/google-cloud-python/issues/13585"}