DuckDB-less installation instructions conflict with pyproject.toml requirements

[boldorider4]

In duckdbless_requirements.txt it is implied that duckdb is an optional dependency.

However in multiple modules in the project, duckdb is imported, also outside of the splink/duckdb subdirectory, which would make splink throw an exception at runtime.

Also, it is not clear in the pyproject.toml why duckdb is listed as a mandatory requirement, which will have pip check fail on the built package citing a missing duckdb.

[boldorider4]

To me it seems that the duckdbless_requirements.txt were formulated by inspecting the installed package of an arbitrary duckdb-less environment with poetry. Which also poses the question whether the compatibility ranges of the pyproject.toml are reliable since they differ from the duckdb-less environment displayed.

[RobinL]

Not sure, some of the other team may be able to help with the details. But at a quick look, the duckdb imports outside of the duckdb/ directory are within try/except blocks.

I'm reasonably confident the duckdb-less install works, because we have colleagues who rely on it

[boldorider4]

They are not all within try/except blocks, that's exactly my point.
see here
and here.

[RobinL]

Sure, but have you tried to use the duckdbless install? Those are a few ancillary functions which are not used by the main linking routines. You're right , we should have been more careful about namespacing them but in practice I don't think it matters - you should be able to carry out a full linkage without hitting errors.