Announcement: pip 20.1b1 beta release

[Sumana Harihareswara]

On behalf of the PyPA, I am pleased to announce a beta release of pip,
pip 20.1b1, has been released.

The highlights for this release are:

* Significant speedups when building local directories, by changing
behavior to perform in-place builds, instead of copying to temporary
directories.
* Significant speedups in `pip list --outdated`, by parallelizing
network access. This is the first instance of parallel code within pip's
codebase.
* A new `pip cache` command, which makes it possible to introspect and
manage pip's cache directory.
* Better `pip freeze` for packages installed from direct URLs, enabled
by the implementation of PEP 610.

We would be grateful for all the testing that users could do to ensure
that, when pip 20.1 is released, it's as solid as we can make it. You
can upgrade to this beta with `python -m pip install -U --pre pip`.

This release also contains an alpha version of pip's next generation
resolver. It is **off by default** because it is **unstable and not
ready for everyday use**. If you're curious about this, please visit
[this GitHub issue about the resolver, what doesn't work yet, and what
kind of testing would help us
out](https://github.com/pypa/pip/issues/8099).

As with all pip releases, a significant amount of the work was
contributed by pip's user community. Huge thanks to all who have
contributed, whether through code, documentation, issue reports and/or
discussion. Your help keeps pip improving, and is hugely appreciated.

Specific thanks go to [Mozilla (through its Mozilla Open Source Support
Awards)](https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/moss/) and to [the Chan
Zuckerberg Initiative](https://chanzuckerberg.com/eoss/) DAF, an advised
fund of Silicon Valley Community Foundation, for their support that
enabled the work on the new resolver.


--
Sumana Harihareswara
pip project manager under contract with Python Software Foundation
Changeset Consulting
https://changeset.nyc

[Sumana Harihareswara]

We're aiming on releasing pip 20.1 in the next hour or so. If you found
bugs to file regarding the beta https://pypi.org/project/pip/20.1b1/
before we release 20.1, now's a good time to do that.
--
Sumana Harihareswara
Changeset Consulting
https://changeset.nyc

[Sumana Harihareswara]

Thanks for the testing, all. Pip 20.1 is now out and
https://pip.pypa.io/en/latest/news/ has the changes since the beta.