docs for * deps don't mention locally vs crates.io

[steveklabnik]

reported here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14217327

[carols10cents]

Copy pasting because I've been bitten by bug reports linking to something that went away:

The version requirement in the cargo.toml file under [dependencies] is

chrono="*"

which, according to this manual [1] is valid.

[1] http://doc.crates.io/specifying-dependencies.html

Yes, star dependencies were removed like a year ago, for semver issues. They went through multiple release cycles of warnings.

From the Cargo manual [1]:

Wildcard requirements

Wildcard requirements allow for any version where the wildcard is positioned.

, 1. and 1.2.* are examples of wildcard requirements.

• := >=0.0.0
  1.* := >=1.0.0 <2.0.0
  1.2.* := >=1.2.0 <1.3.0

Apparently, nobody bothered to update the manual after removing the feature.

[1] http://doc.crates.io/specifying-dependencies.html

Second, the Cargo star dependencies report. Manishearth is wrong, we disallow those dependencies from being uploaded to crates.io, but end users are allowed to use them just fine (strongly recommended that you don't, though!).

[alexcrichton]

Just to make sure I understand, sounds like we should update the documentation for crates.io that * dependencies are disallowed, but that's the only change?

[carols10cents]

Just to make sure I understand, sounds like we should update the documentation for crates.io that * dependencies are disallowed, but that's the only change?

Pretty much, yeah, we should clarify that * dependencies are allowed in general but are disallowed if you publish your crate to crates.io.