Hi all, I present for your deliberation a draft PEP for the inclusion of a pip bootstrap program in Python 3.4. Discussion of this PEP should remain here on the distutils SIG. The PEP is revision controlled in my bitbucket account https://bitbucket.org/r1chardj0n3s/pypi-pep (this is also where I'm intending to develop the implementation.) Richard PEP: XXXX Title: Inclusion of pip bootstrap in Python installation Version: Last-Modified: Author: Richard Jones BDFL-Delegate: Nick Coghlan Discussions-To: Status: Draft Type: Standards Track Created: 18-Mar-2013 Python-Version: 3.4 Post-History: 19-Mar-2013 Abstract ======== This PEP proposes the inclusion of a pip boostrap executable in the Python installation to simplify the use of 3rd-party modules by Python users. This PEP does not propose to include the pip implementation in the Python standard library. Nor does it propose to implement any package management or installation mechanisms beyond those provided by PEPs 470 ("The Wheel Binary Package Format 1.0") and TODO distlib PEP. Rationale ========= Currently the user story for installing 3rd-party Python modules is not as simple as it could be. It requires that all 3rd-party modules inform the user of how to install the installer, typically via a link to the installer. That link may be out of date or the steps required to perform the install of the installer may be enough of a roadblock to prevent the user from further progress. Large Python projects which emphasise a low barrier to entry have shied away from depending on third party packages because of the introduction of this potential stumbling block for new users. With the inclusion of the package installer command in the standard Python installation the barrier to installing additional software is considerably reduced. It is hoped that this will therefore increase the likelihood that Python projects will reuse third party software. It is also hoped that this is reduces the number of proposals to include more and more software in the Python standard library, and therefore that more popular Python software is more easily upgradeable beyond requiring Python installation upgrades. Proposal ======== Python install includes an executable called "pip" that attempts to import pip machinery. If it can then the pip command proceeds as normal. If it cannot it will bootstrap pip by downloading the pip implementation wheel file. Once installed, the pip command proceeds as normal. A boostrap is used in the place of a the full pip code so that we don't have to bundle pip and also the install tool is upgradeable outside of the regular Python upgrade timeframe and processes. To avoid issues with sudo we will have the bootstrap default to installing the pip implementation to the per-user site-packages directory defined in PEP 370 and implemented in Python 2.6/3.0. Since we avoid installing to the system Python we also avoid conflicting with any other packaging system (on Linux systems, for example.) If the user is inside a virtual environment (TODO PEP ref) then the pip implementation will be installed into that virtual environment. The bootstrapping process will proceed as follows: 1. The user system has Python (3.4+) installed. In the "scripts" directory of the Python installation there is the bootstrap script called "pip". 2. The user will invoke a pip command, typically "pip install <package>", for example "pip install Django". 3. The boostrap script will attempt to import the pip implementation. If this succeeds, the pip command is processed normally. 4. On failing to import the pip implementation the bootstrap notifies the user that it is "upgrading pip" and contacts PyPI to obtain the latest download wheel file (see PEP 427.) 5. Upon downloading the file it is installed using the distlib installation machinery for wheel packages. Upon completing the installation the user is notified that "pip has been upgraded." TODO how is it verified? 6. The pip tool may now import the pip implementation and continues to process the requested user command normally. Users may be running in an environment which cannot access the public Internet and are relying solely on a local package repository. They would use the "-i" (Base URL of Python Package Index) argument to the "pip install" command. This use case will be handled by: 1. Recognising the command-line arguments that specify alternative or additional locations to discover packages and attempting to download the package from those locations. 2. If the package is not found there then we attempt to donwload it using the standard "https://pypi.python.org/pypi/simple/pip" index. 3. If that also fails, for any reason, we indicate to the user the operation we were attempting, the reason for failure (if we know it) and display further instructions for downloading and installing the file manually. Manual installation of the pip implementation will be supported through the manual download of the wheel file and "pip install <downloaded wheel file>". This installation will not perform standard pip installation steps of saving the file to a cache directory or updating any local database of installed files. The download of the pip implementation install file should be performed securely. The transport from pypi.python.org will be done over HTTPS but the CA certificate check will most likely not be performed. Therefore we will utilise the embedded signature support in the wheel format to validate the downloaded file. Beyond those arguments controlling index location and download options, the "pip" boostrap command may support further standard pip options for verbosity, quietness and logging. The "--no-install" option to the "pip" command will not affect the bootstrapping process. An additional new Python package will be proposed, "pypublish", which will be a tool for publishing packages to PyPI. It would replace the current "python setup.py register" and "python setup.py upload" distutils commands. Again because of the measured Python release cycle and extensive existing Python installations these commands are difficult to bugfix and extend. Additionally it is desired that the "register" and "upload" commands be able to be performed over HTTPS with certificate validation. Since shipping CA certificate keychains with Python is not really feasible (updating the keychain is quite difficult to manage) it is desirable that those commands, and the accompanying keychain, be made installable and upgradeable outside of Python itself. Implementation ============== TBD Risks ===== The Fedora variant of Linux has had a separate program called "pip" (a Perl package installer) available for install for some time. The current Python "pip" program is installed as "pip-python". It is hoped that the Fedora community will resolve this issue by renaming the Perl installer. Currently pip depends upon setuptools functionality. It is intended that before Python 3.4 is shipped that the required functionlity will be present in Python's standard library as the distlib module, and that pip would be modified to use that functionality when present. TODO PEP reference for distlib References ========== None, so far, beyond the PEPs. Acknowledgments =============== Nick Coghlan for his thoughts on the proposal and dealing with the Red Hat issue. Jannis Leidel and Carl Meyer for their thoughts. Copyright ========= This document has been placed in the public domain.