[Python-Dev] RE: [Distutils] Killing off bdist_dumb

[Andrew MacIntyre]

> Andrew, was the use of full paths the problem that kept you 
> from using it?

After revisiting some experiments, I can say that full paths was the 
issue that kept me from using it.

While I note MAL's point about sub-classing, that is only useful from 
the POV of a module author.

My POV is that of a 3rd party who wants to build & distribute installable 
module binaries to accompany a non-PythonLabs Python binary distribution.

>From this POV, on the particular platform I'm supporting, what I want is 
bdist_dumb to default to using paths relative to sys.prefix.

I tried to suss out what changes might achieve this, and the simplest 
option that occurred to me was to move down the extra directory levels 
when changing directory into the "dumb" directory prior to zipping 
things up.  This is not too bad for OS/2, where the installation 
structure has always been simple & consistent across releases, but 
other platforms are more involved.

A bdist_dumb option to select between full & relative paths would be 
Ok.

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Andrew MacIntyre                  \ E-mail: andrew.macintyre@aba.gov.au
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