# Third try on editable installs

**URL:** <https://discuss.python.org/t/third-try-on-editable-installs/3986>\
**Category:** Packaging\
**Created:** [April 23, 2020, 8:15pm UTC](https://discuss.python.org/t/third-try-on-editable-installs/3986 "2020-04-23T20:15:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 17

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**Author:** ![dholth](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discuss.python.org/dholth/32/952_2.png) [@dholth](https://discuss.python.org/u/dholth)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 5:33pm UTC](https://discuss.python.org/t/third-try-on-editable-installs/3986/17 "2020-04-24T17:33:05Z")

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> [@Specification of editable installation](https://discuss.python.org/t/specification-of-editable-installation/1564/40):
>
> No change in status so far. Currently we have a generally good “big picture” idea of what this should look like: backend produces a a pseudo-wheel consisting of wheel metadata plus a mapping between the locations of the files as they should exist in the package and the locations that they exist on disk front-end uses whatever mechanism it deems proper to expose those files to Python in such a way that they will update as the files change on disk We need a proof of concept for that for both se…

Earlier in this thread

> 1. Back-ends don’t need to know anything about how to install files.
> 2. Front-ends handle entry point generation and installation.
> 3. Front-ends have the option of “installing” _only_ the files that will be visible in a non-editable install.

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