On Jan 31, 2009, at 23:17 PM, David Cournapeau wrote:
There are two problems with stow and setuptools: - setuptools refuses to install in a directory not in PYTHONPATH, so python setup.py install --prefix=/usr/local/stow/my- package does not work when setup.py uses setuptools. You have to use --single-version-externally-managed (plus another option required by this one). That's the most annoying point, since it depends on whether setup.py uses setuptools or plain distutils. From a user POV, setuptools broke standard python behavior. - namespace packages: the fact that namespace/__init__ are 'owned' by several packages is a fundamental problem (not only for stow, but almost any package system). But unless python itself supports namespace packages, I don't see any solution to this one.
also: - easy-install.pth; When you install two different packages under GNU stow, then stow can install both of those packages (by creating symlinks pointing to each file from each package) *unless* both packages created a file in the same location. Two different Python packages both installed by setuptools (without --single- version-externally-managed) will create a file in the same location -- the easy-install.pth file. If setuptools didn't need to create this file (and if it accepted installation into a directory not currently on the PYTHONPATH, per http://bugs.python.org/setuptools/ issue54 (be more like distutils with regard to --prefix=)), then it would be GNU stow-compatible. Regards, Zooko --- Tahoe, the Least-Authority Filesystem -- http://allmydata.org store your data: $10/month -- http://allmydata.com/?tracking=zsig