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Resolver internals docs touchups (astral-sh#5850)
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.venv
CHANGELOG.md
PREVIEW-CHANGELOG.md
docs/reference/*.md
docs/reference/cli.md
docs/reference/settings.md
51 changes: 25 additions & 26 deletions docs/reference/resolver-internals.md
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Expand Up @@ -8,10 +8,10 @@
## Resolver

As defined in a textbook, resolution, or finding a set of version to install from a given set of
requirements, is equivalent to the [SAT
problem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boolean_satisfiability_problem) and thereby NP-complete: in
the worst case you have to try all possible combinations of all versions of all packages and there
are no general, fast algorithms. In practice, this is misleading for a number of reasons:
requirements, is equivalent to the
[SAT problem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boolean_satisfiability_problem) and thereby NP-complete:
in the worst case you have to try all possible combinations of all versions of all packages and
there are no general, fast algorithms. In practice, this is misleading for a number of reasons:

- The slowest part of resolution in uv is loading package and version metadata, even if it's cached.
- There are many possible solutions, but some are preferable than others. For example we generally
Expand All @@ -30,34 +30,33 @@ uv uses [pubgrub-rs](https://github.com/pubgrub-rs/pubgrub), the Rust implementa
[PubGrub](https://nex3.medium.com/pubgrub-2fb6470504f), an incremental version solver. PubGrub in uv
works in the following steps:

- Start with a partial solution that declares which packages versions have been selected and
which are undecided. Initially, this may be all undecided.
- Start with a partial solution that declares which packages versions have been selected and which
are undecided. Initially, only a virtual root package is decided.
- The highest priority package is selected from the undecided packages. Package with URLs (including
file, git, etc.) have the highest priority, then those with more exact specifiers (such as `==`),
then those with less strict specifiers. Inside each category, packages are ordered by when they
were first seen (i.e. order in a file), making the resolution deterministic.
- A version is picked for the selected package. The version must works with all specifiers from the
requirements in the partial solution and must not be previously marked as incompatible. The
resolver prefers versions from a lockfile (`uv.lock` or `-o requirements.txt`) and that are
installed in the current environment. Versions are checked from highest to lowest (unless using an
resolver prefers versions from a lockfile (`uv.lock` or `-o requirements.txt`) and those installed
in the current environment. Versions are checked from highest to lowest (unless using an
alternative [resolution strategy](../concepts/resolution.md#resolution-strategy)).
- All requirements of the selected package version are added to the undecided packages. uv
prefetches their metadata in the background to improve performance.
- The process is either repeated with the next package unless a conflict is detected, in which the
resolver will backtrack. For example, if the partial solution contains, among other packages, `a
2` then `b 2` with the requirements `a 2 -> c 1` and `b 2 -> c 2`. No compatible version of `c`
can be found. PubGrub can determine this was caused by `a 2` and `b 2` and add the incompatibility
`{a 2, b 2}`, meaning that when either is picked, the other cannot be selected. The partial solution is
restored to `a 2` with the tracked incompatibility and the resolver attempts to pick a new version
for `b`.
resolver will backtrack. For example, the partial solution contains, among other packages, `a 2`
then `b 2` with the requirements `a 2 -> c 1` and `b 2 -> c 2`. No compatible version of `c` can
be found. PubGrub can determine this was caused by `a 2` and `b 2` and add the incompatibility
`{a 2, b 2}`, meaning that when either is picked, the other cannot be selected. The partial
solution is restored to `a 2` with the tracked incompatibility and the resolver attempts to pick a
new version for `b`.

Eventually, the resolver either picks compatible versions for all packages (a successful resolution)
or there is an incompatibility including the "root" package which defines the versions requested by
the user. An incompatibility with the root package indicates that whatever versions of the root
dependencies and their transitive dependencies are picked, there will always be a conflict. From the
incompatibilities tracked in PubGrub, an error message is constructed to enumerate the involved
packages.

or there is an incompatibility including the virtual "root" package which defines the versions
requested by the user. An incompatibility with the root package indicates that whatever versions of
the root dependencies and their transitive dependencies are picked, there will always be a conflict.
From the incompatibilities tracked in PubGrub, an error message is constructed to enumerate the
involved packages.

!!! tip

Expand All @@ -67,8 +66,8 @@ packages.
## Forking

Python resolvers historically didn't support backtracking, and even with backtracking, resolution
was usually limited to single environment, which one specific architecture, operating system,
Python version, and Python implementation. Some packages use contradictory requirements for different
was usually limited to single environment, which one specific architecture, operating system, Python
version, and Python implementation. Some packages use contradictory requirements for different
environments, for example:

```text
Expand All @@ -81,7 +80,7 @@ Since Python only allows one version of each package, a naive resolver would err
multiple requirements for a package with different markers, the resolution is split.

In the above example, the partial solution would be split into two resolutions, one for
`python_version >= "3.11"` and one for `python_version < "3.11"`.
`python_version >= "3.11"` and one for `python_version < "3.11"`.

If markers overlap or are missing a part of the marker space, the resolver splits additional times —
there can be many forks per package. For example, given:
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -111,7 +110,7 @@ resolver is invoked again, a different solution is found because the preferences
fork points. To avoid this, the `environment-markers` of each fork and each package that diverges
between forks is written to the lockfile. When performing a new resolution, the forks from the
lockfile are used to ensure the resolution is stable. When requirements change, new forks may be
added to the saved forks.
added to the saved forks.

## Requires-python

Expand All @@ -120,8 +119,8 @@ included Python versions, uv requires that all dependencies have the same minimu
Package versions that declare a higher minimum Python version, e.g., `requires-python = ">=3.10"`,
are rejected, because a resolution with that version can't be installed on Python 3.9. For
simplicity and forward compatibility, only lower bounds in `requires-python` are respected. For
example, if a package declares `requires-python = ">=3.8,<4"`, the `<4` marker is not propagated
to the entire resolution.
example, if a package declares `requires-python = ">=3.8,<4"`, the `<4` marker is not propagated to
the entire resolution.

## Wheel tags

Expand Down

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