[Distutils] Access to Python config info

[Greg Stein]

John Skaller wrote:
> ...
> >       def has_symlinks():
> >           global has_symlinks
> >           import os
> >           if hasattr(os, "symlink"):
> >               has_symlinks = true
> >               return 1
> >           else:
> >               has_symlinks = false
> >               return 0
> 
>         Obviously, this does not work. It tests if there is
> a symlinks attribute in os, not what should be tested:
> 
>         1) if there is an attribute symlinks, it works according to spec
>         2) if there is not, then the os doesn't support symlinks
> 
> To perform (1) would require actually creating some symlinks,
> and seeing if they 'worked'. This is what autoconf does;

No. If it is there, then it should work. If it doesn't, then ask Guido
what he'd like to do. His answer will be one of:

1) it should be removed for that platform
2) it will stay; test sys.platform to determine whether it will work.

There is no reason for anything to code defensively against the standard
distribution library. There is no need to second-guess all of its
modules and functions.

[trimming the rest of this email note]

Can you send around a URL to the interscript online doc? And when you
refer to it, could you please cite a more specific reference? Call it a
character flaw, but I'm not going to just blindly go read a bunch of
doc. A concrete reference helps (me, at least) provide some
focus/structure to why I'm there reading the thing in the first place.

Cheers,
-g

--
Greg Stein, http://www.lyra.org/