Here is PEP 243, discussing how to make Distutils submit .tar.gz packages (and the like) to the mythical catalog server. I've got code for this prototyped, but give me a couple of days to make it completely PEP-compliant. Moshe has already commented: a. you don't say which URL to post to (just spell it out: POST http://modules.python.org:80/ (and let upload override that) b. have the codes be HTTP codes and the headers HTTP non-standard (X-) headers. how about using the HTTP headers and error-codes, and have *all* the page human readable. Good comments, I'll look at building them in... I look forward to any comments -- I'd like to start working on distutils patches within the week. Thanks, Sean ========================================================================== PEP: 243 Title: Module Repository Upload Mechanism Version: $Revision$ Author: jafo-pep@tummy.com (Sean Reifschneider) Status: Draft Type: Standards Track Created: 18-Mar-2001 Python-Version: 2.1 Post-History: Discussions-To: distutils-sig@python.org Abstract For a module repository system (such as Perl's CPAN) to be successful, it must be as easy as possible for module authors to submit their work. An obvious place for this submit to happen is in the Distutils tools after the distribution archive has been successfully created. For example, after a module author has tested their software (verifying the results of "setup.py sdist"), they might type "setup.py sdist --submit". This would flag Distutils to submit the source distribution to the archive server for inclusion and distribution to the mirrors. This PEP only deals with the mechanism for submitting the software distributions to the archive, and does not deal with the actual archive/catalog server. Upload Process The upload will include the Distutils "PKG-INFO" meta-data information (as specified in PEP-241 [1]), the actual software distribution, and other optional information. This information will be uploaded as a multi-part form encoded the same as a regular HTML file upload request. This form is posted using ENCTYPE="multipart/form-data" encoding. The upload will be made to the host "modules.python.org" on port 80/tcp. The form will consist of the following fields: distribution -- The file containing the module software (for example, a .tar.gz or .zip file). distmd5sum -- The MD5 hash of the uploaded distribution, encoded in ASCII representing the hexadecimal representation of the digest ("for byte in digest: s = s + ('%02x' % ord(byte))"). pkginfo -- The file containing the distribution meta-data (as specified in PEP-241 [1]). infomd5sum -- The MD5 hash of the uploaded meta-data, encoded in ASCII representing the hexadecimal representation of the digest ("for byte in digest: s = s + ('%02x' % ord(byte))"). platform (optional) -- A string representing the target platform for this distribution. This is only for binary distributions. It is encoded as "--<platform architecture>". signature (optional) -- A GPG signature of the uploaded distribution as signed by the author. This may be used by the cataloging system to automate acceptance of uploads. Return Data The upload will report the status of the upload by sending the string "Upload status:" followed by one of the following: SUCCESS -- Indicates that the upload has succeeded. FAILURE -- The upload is, for some reason, unable to be processed. TRYAGAIN -- The server is unable to accept the upload at this time, but the client should try again at a later time. Potential causes of this are resource shortages on the server, administrative down-time, etc... Following the above string may be a human-readable string providing further information. This message continues to the end of the returned data-stream. Returned data which does not fit the above format should be treated as a temporary failure. Sample Form The upload client must submit the page in the same form as Netscape Navigator version 4.76 for Linux produces when presented with the following form: <H1>Upload file</H1> <FORM NAME="fileupload" METHOD="POST" ACTION="swalowpost.cgi" ENCTYPE="multipart/form-data"> <INPUT TYPE="file" NAME="distribution"><BR> <INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="distmd5sum"><BR> <INPUT TYPE="file" NAME="pkginfo"><BR> <INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="infomd5sum"><BR> <INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="platform"><BR> <INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="signature"><BR> <INPUT TYPE="SUBMIT" VALUE="Upload"> </FORM> Platforms The following are valid os names: debian hpux mandrake redhat solaris suse windows yellowdog The above include a number of different types of distributions of Linux. Because of versioning issues these must be split out, and it is expected that when it makes sense for one system to use distributions made on other similar systems, the download client will make the distinction. Version is the official version string specified by the vendor for the particular release. For example, "nt" (Windows), "9.04" (HP-UX), "7.0" (RedHat, Mandrake). The following are valid architectures: alpha hppa ix86 powerpc sparc ultrasparc Status I currently have a proof-of-concept client and server implemented. I plan to have the Distutils patches ready for the 2.1 release. Combined with Andrew's PEP-241 [1] for specifying distribution meta-data, I hope to have a platform which will allow us to gather real-world data for finalizing the catalog system for the 2.2 release. References [1] Metadata for Python Software Package, Kuchling, http://python.sourceforge.net/peps/pep-0241.html Copyright This document has been placed in the public domain.  Local Variables: mode: indented-text indent-tabs-mode: nil End: -- I used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I realized who was telling me this. -- Emo Phillips Sean Reifschneider, Inimitably Superfluous tummy.com - Linux Consulting since 1995. Qmail, KRUD, Firewalls, Python