Pin a document to a specific ReSpec version

[ktk]

I see there are releases of ReSpec on Github and they seem to get pushed to NPM as well. Is there a way to pin to a specific version instead of latest in a document so we don't break stuff without explicitly asking for it?

[sidvishnoi]

Given it's on npm:

1. You can use CDN like unpkg (and many others) to pin specific version. For example:

   https://unpkg.com/respec@34.1.1/builds/respec-w3c.js
   https://unpkg.com/respec@34/builds/respec-w3c.js
   

2. Self-host it: Copy the respec-w3c script and push it your repository.
   1. You can simplify updates with self-hosting with using a package.json and excluding the respec script from .gitignore.
   2. Or, you do something more automated like MediaCapture spec does: https://github.com/w3c/mediacapture-main/blob/main/.github/workflows/update-respec.yml

[marcoscaceres]

This is strongly discouraged. Doing this mean you will potentially end up with the wrong templates, the wrong W3C Process checks, and generally in a world of pain when you move to a new version.

If Repec is yelling at you about things and a spec is broken, then it's doing its job correctly: it means that the spec needs to be updated and maintained. Locking to a specific version of Respec means that the spec is not being maintained properly.