[Distutils] Package Meta-information Patch

[Fred L. Drake, Jr.]

Michael Muller writes:
 > You are correct (with the exception of "shlib" - which I seem to be
 > unable to import; new module?).  However, none of these was as easy
 > to use as this:

  shlib was in 1.5.2, I think, but it is fairly new.
  Perhaps the ease of use indicates that the interface to modules like 
ConfigParser needs to be enhanced.  You're right: it *should* be easy!

 > Maybe I'm missing something here, but I fail to see how this possibility is
 > any more threatening than that of a malevolent packager installing viral
 > code on your system.

  Even if buggy code is installed, the package manager itself should
remain usable so that it can be removed easily.

 > In the system that I have submitted, the packager does not directly provide
 > the meta-database file (sorry :-).  The manipulation of these files is
 > performed through the pkginfo module, which can encapsulate any kind of
 > information repository that you like.

  That does help; my misunderstanding.  But I still think a non-code
syntax is preferable.  Something like an .ini file is very readable
and is already familiar to sys-admin types; Python syntax is almost
there, but not quite.


  -Fred

--
Fred L. Drake, Jr.	  <fdrake at acm.org>
Corporation for National Research Initiatives