diff --git a/requirements/updater.sh b/requirements/updater.sh
index aa8f31ba70..fa9ae7ddd2 100755
--- a/requirements/updater.sh
+++ b/requirements/updater.sh
@@ -14,17 +14,19 @@ _cleanup() {
 generate_requirements() {
   venv="`pwd`/venv"
   echo $venv
-  /usr/bin/python3.8 -m venv "${venv}"
+  /usr/bin/python3 -m venv "${venv}"
   # shellcheck disable=SC1090
   source ${venv}/bin/activate
 
-  ${venv}/bin/python3.8 -m pip install -U pip pip-tools
+  ${venv}/bin/python3 -m pip install -U pip pip-tools
 
-  ${pip_compile} --output-file requirements.txt "${requirements_in}" "${requirements_git}"
+  ${pip_compile} "${requirements_in}" "${requirements_git}" --output-file requirements.txt
   # consider the git requirements for purposes of resolving deps
   # Then remove any git+ lines from requirements.txt
   while IFS= read -r line; do
-    sed -i "\!${line%#*}!d" requirements.txt
+    if [[ $line != \#* ]]; then  # ignore comments
+      sed -i "\!${line%#*}!d" requirements.txt
+    fi
   done < "${requirements_git}"
 }