On 7 January 2013 16:37, Vinay Sajip <vinay_sajip@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
changed to be worded in terms of sysconfig-style locations: the dist-info directory is located in whichever of purelib or platlib is used by the distribution. When the distribution uses both, purelib is preferred, when it uses neither (!) purelib is used. In nearly all
What kind of distributions would use neither purelib nor platlib?
I'm not aware of any, and I think it would be pretty bizarre - that was the point of the "(!)". I only mentioned it for completeness.
cases, this is the same as currently. The exceptions are posix_home (where the directory name isn't "site-packages" but its function is the same), posix_prefix (where purelib and platlib differ, and PEP 376 is currently ambiguous as to which is implied), and any custom schemes that might be created (where PEP 376 is silent, and this proposal has the benefit of at least being specific). I do not believe this changes any actual practice - as far as I have been able to determine any code using dist-info at the moment follows this proposal in the corner cases where it differs from PEP 376. """
On what basis would you pick anything other than purelib to install your distribution into? Just that your distribution contains C extensions, or other additional criteria?
I believe "it uses C extensions" is the criterion, but it's something that is decided internally by distutils, as far as I am aware, and I have never braved the code to determine the exact rules. As a package consumer, and in particular one working on a platform where purelib=platlib, I only care insofar as I want a well-defined rule that doesn't break regardless of which is used, and can be accepted by people who work in environments where it *does* matter. Paul.