[Catalog-sig] (no subject)

["Martin v. Löwis"]

Maurice Ling wrote:
> Given that (1) there can be multiple versions of Python installed in a
> system, (2) each version maintains their own site-packages directory and
> (3) if C modules are installed, they are not compatible with other
> versions of Python... Imagine a system administrator who had installed
> 50 libraries and their dependencies in site-package of Python 2.3 and
> now has to do it for Python 2.4, can we make his life better?

I'd like to point out that this is a task that the "native" package
format can solve. For example, in Debian, when I use Debian packages
to install the 50 libraries, the current Debian Python policy manages
to update all the libraries from Python 2.3 to Python 2.4, when
the "official" Debian Python version becomes 2.4.

This is achieved by providing, for a library "foo", several packages:
python-foo, python2.2-foo, python2.3-foo, python2.4-foo. As a user,
I install python-foo, which currently depends on python2.3-foo. When
/usr/bin/python becomes 2.4, a new version of python-foo will be
released which depends on python2.4-foo. Just by updating all packages
I have installed, it automatically installs python2.4-foo as well.

Of course, if I don't want to wait for Debian to make /usr/bin/python
Python 2.4, I easily upgrade all libraries myself:

dpkg --get-selections|grep python2.3-|sed s/2.3/2.4/|dpkg --set-selections

will arrange to select all 2.4 libraries for which I have 2.3
versions installed.

So on Debian, I don't need any further support from distutils.

Regards,
Martin