requirements-checker
Validate, lint, sort, and compare Python requirements.txt files. Pure stdlib — no external dependencies required.
Validate
Check a requirements file for format errors, invalid specifiers, duplicates, and problematic patterns.
python3 scripts/requirements-checker.py validate requirements.txt
# JSON output for automation
python3 scripts/requirements-checker.py validate requirements.txt --format json
# Strict mode — exit 1 on any issue (CI)
python3 scripts/requirements-checker.py validate requirements.txt --strict
Lint
All validation checks plus best-practice rules: unpinned deps, missing upper bounds, VCS deps, non-alphabetical order, mixed operator styles.
python3 scripts/requirements-checker.py lint requirements.txt
# Markdown output (for PR comments, reports)
python3 scripts/requirements-checker.py lint requirements.txt --format markdown
# Strict mode — exit 1 on warnings too
python3 scripts/requirements-checker.py lint requirements.txt --strict
# Ignore specific rules
python3 scripts/requirements-checker.py lint requirements.txt --ignore unpinned --ignore no-upper-bound
Duplicates
Find packages listed more than once (case-insensitive, PEP 503 normalised).
python3 scripts/requirements-checker.py duplicates requirements.txt
python3 scripts/requirements-checker.py duplicates requirements.txt --format json
Sort
Sort requirements alphabetically. By default writes to stdout; use --write to update the file in-place.
# Preview sorted output
python3 scripts/requirements-checker.py sort requirements.txt
# Write sorted file in-place
python3 scripts/requirements-checker.py sort requirements.txt --write
Compare
Diff two requirements files — shows added, removed, and changed packages with version changes.
python3 scripts/requirements-checker.py compare requirements.txt requirements-new.txt
python3 scripts/requirements-checker.py compare base.txt updated.txt --format markdown
Global Options
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
--format text|json|markdown |
Output format (default: text) |
--strict |
Exit code 1 on any issue, including warnings/info (CI mode) |
--ignore RULE |
Ignore a named rule; repeatable |
Validation Checks
| Rule | Severity | Description |
|---|---|---|
invalid-format |
error | Line doesn't match PEP 508 |
invalid-specifier |
error | Unknown operator or unparseable version spec |
duplicate-package |
error | Same package name appears more than once |
editable-install |
warning | -e editable installs in production requirements |
vcs-dependency |
warning | git+, hg+, svn+, bzr+ URL dependencies |
custom-index-url |
warning | --index-url / --extra-index-url present |
url-dependency |
info | Direct URL dependencies |
requirement-include |
info | -r nested includes |
trailing-whitespace |
info | Line has trailing spaces or tabs |
whitespace-only-line |
info | Line contains only whitespace |
missing-final-newline |
info | File doesn't end with newline |
Lint Rules (in addition to validation)
| Rule | Severity | Description |
|---|---|---|
unpinned |
warning | Dependency has no version specifier |
no-upper-bound |
warning | >= used without a < / <= upper bound |
non-alphabetical |
warning | Packages are not in alphabetical order |
mixed-operators |
info | File mixes == exact pins and >= range specifiers |
Example Output
File: requirements.txt
[ERROR] line 4 (duplicate-package) Duplicate package 'requests' (first seen on line 2)
requests==2.31.0
[WARNING] line 7 (no-upper-bound) 'django' uses >= without an upper bound
django>=4.0
[WARNING] line 1 (non-alphabetical) 'zope' is out of alphabetical order
zope==5.0
Summary: 3 issue(s) — 1 error(s), 2 warning(s), 0 info(s)