[Catalog-sig] Extending the package meta-data with more detailed download information

[M.-A. Lemburg]

"Martin v. Löwis" wrote:
>> I'd like to extend PyPI to also provide support for listing
>> files on other servers as well as making it possible for
>> the package manager tools to automatically select the right
>> installation file for the intended target platform.
> 
> In such a scenario, how do people get the files onto the server?
> Will they typically know the URLs of the files upfront?

Yes.

> ISTM that it would be better to be able to add new such URLs one
> by one, e.g. through a web form.

I don't think that's a feasible approach, e.g. eGenix typically
creates around 50 distribution files for every single release
of a product.

In most cases, only the version number changes, so this can
easily be done using sed or in a text editor.

I agree, though, that an RPC interface would also be possible
to automate such a registration process, e.g. via a new
register_distribution command.

>> To enhance the user experience we were thinking about providing
>> a tool to automate the whole process. However, if PIP can
>> provide this functionality based on the extended distribution
>> file information, we'd rather point our users to PIP.
> 
> If the use case is automated download, I think the list of
> properties should be restricted to the set of properties relevant
> for that use case.

The properties I mentioned are all necessary to get reliable
automatic downloads working. The other properties (e.g. comments)
are already available in the database.

In general, I don't see a problem with having a few more
properties of a distribution file. They don't all have to be
displayed in the PyPI GUI (which is typically used by users
rather than automated scripts), but can well serve package
managers which need more detail to make reliable decisions.

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
eGenix.com

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