[Distutils] Disposition of C extensions and packages

[Guido van Rossum]

> Guido van Rossum writes:
> >> But what platform-specific directory should
> >> packages be installed into?  
> > <exec_prefix>lib/python<version>/site-packages

[AMK]
> Ah, so then you should never attempt to share site-packages between
> different Python installations.

Not sure.  There are TWO site-packages directories.  One under prefix,
one under exec_prefix.  (Of course, if you're not concerned with
exec_prefix, they will be the same one.)

The one under prefix can be shared -- and should not contain shared
libraries if it is shared.  The one under exec_prefix is not shared.

> If you want a directory of common
> Python code that's used by several different Python binaries, I guess
> you should hack sitecustomize.py to modify sys.path accordingly.  One
> for GPW's notes on administering a Python installation...

Yes, they will (presumably) have different prefix values, and then by
default they won't share anything.

> I think this argues for changes in the Distutils -- right now
> an installation like this is really hard.

Not sure what you mean by "like this."

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)