Skip to content

docs: Use double quotes for pip extras so install commands work in cmd.exe#2242

Open
LHMQ878 wants to merge 1 commit into
microsoft:mainfrom
LHMQ878:docs/quote-extras-for-cmd
Open

docs: Use double quotes for pip extras so install commands work in cmd.exe#2242
LHMQ878 wants to merge 1 commit into
microsoft:mainfrom
LHMQ878:docs/quote-extras-for-cmd

Conversation

@LHMQ878

@LHMQ878 LHMQ878 commented Jul 26, 2026

Copy link
Copy Markdown

Closes #2232

Problem

The install commands in the READMEs single-quote the extras, e.g.
pip install -e 'packages/markitdown[all]'. cmd.exe does not strip single quotes, so pip receives
them as part of the path and rejects it:

ERROR: 'packages/markitdown[all]' is not a valid editable requirement. It should either be
a path to a local project or a VCS URL (beginning with bzr+http, ...).

Change

Switched the six pip install snippets in README.md and packages/markitdown/README.md
from single to double quotes.

Double quotes rather than dropping the quotes entirely, because the quoting is still needed on
POSIX shells - [all] is a character-class glob pattern in bash/zsh, so an unquoted
markitdown[all] can be word-expanded if a matching path happens to exist. Double quotes are
the one form that works in cmd.exe, PowerShell, bash and zsh alike.

Verification

Windows 11, Python 3.12, pip 26.1.2. Using --dry-run --no-deps so nothing is actually
installed:

command cmd.exe PowerShell
pip install -e 'packages/markitdown[all]' (before) ERROR: not a valid editable requirement ok
pip install -e "packages/markitdown[all]" (after) ok ok

Note that this only reproduces under cmd.exe. PowerShell strips single quotes itself, which
is probably why it has gone unnoticed.

After the change:

  • No single-quoted extras remain in any markdown file in the repo.
  • All six updated snippets resolve correctly; invalid editable requirement errors: 0.
  • No CI workflow or shell script referenced the quoted form, so nothing else needed updating.

The reporter suggested removing the quotes; double-quoting keeps the POSIX side safe as well,
but happy to switch to unquoted if you prefer that for consistency with other docs.

@LHMQ878

LHMQ878 commented Jul 26, 2026

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Author

@microsoft-github-policy-service agree

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment

Labels

None yet

Projects

None yet

Development

Successfully merging this pull request may close these issues.

Error from pip install -e 'packages/markitdown[all]'

1 participant