And a proposed new manifest syntax
...picking up where I left earlier today, here's my proposed new syntax for the MANIFEST.in file. Note that the semantics are the same as the existing MANIFEST, but it should be a) easier to read, b) easier to write, and c) easier to understand the results (thanks to the division of labour between MANIFEST.in and MANIFEST -- see my earlier post). The requirements for the MANIFEST.in syntax is that the developer must be able to include or exclude files by - exact path (including wildcards -- "foo/bar.py" is just a special case of "foo/*.py") - wildcard applied recursively throughout a directory subtree And of course the MANIFEST.in file must be clear, concise, and expressive. The existing syntax is already concise and expressive, but pssbly a lttl too cncse. In my proposed syntax, there are four types of lines in the MANIFEST.in file: <path> include exactly the specified file(s) (path can be a complete directory specification ending with a wildcard, eg. "foo.py", "bar/README.txt", "qux/*.c") exclude <path> exclude exactly the specified file(s) recursive <path> split <path> into <dirname> and <basename>; recursively include all files under <dirname> that match <basename> recursive-exclude <path> you figure it out ;-) Possible points of contention (not "open issues" because I've pretty much made up my mind -- but I am willing to consider the existence of unenlightened heathens who dare to disagree ;-): * no "include" keyword -- clarity/concision tradeoff * no wildcards on directories, ie. "foo/bar/*.py" is OK, but not "foo/*/bar.py" A subtlety that I don't think I've mentioned very widely: like in the setup script, paths would be delimited with a forward slash rather than using the local convention. (Distutils explicitly does "string.split (..., '/')" in many places -- this is a feature, as the resulting list is then put back together with 'os.path.join()' before being used in the real world.) The purpose is the same for both the setup script and MANIFEST.in -- portability. As an example, here's how the MANIFEST file for Distutils 0.1.3 would look with the new syntax: *.txt examples/*.txt examples/*.py exclude distutils/command/build_lib.py So -- opinions? I'll probably implement the new 'dist' command in the next few days, so get back to me soon if you think I'm doing it wrong. Greg
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Greg Ward