[Distutils] Where to find config files

[Gregor Hoffleit]

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On Mon, May 08, 2000 at 09:22:09PM -0400, Greg Ward wrote:
> On 05 May 2000, Michael Muller said:
> > I totally agree with the site-home-currentdir structure, but shouldn't =
the
> > site level file live someplace apart from the code?  If you customize t=
he
> > site file, you probably don't want your changes clobbered by a subseque=
nt
> > distutils install.  sys.prefix + '/etc', perhaps?
>=20
> That's the nice thing about how sys.prefix "belongs" to Python on
> Windows and Mac OS.  I'm not super-keen on /usr/local/etc; I'd rather
> keep the Distutils config file somewhere in the Python library tree.
> Thus, the distutils (or site-packages/distutils, for pre-1.6) directory
> makes sense.  I'm open to other ideas.

Au contraire for Debian and the like. ;-) Think about installations where
Distutils live in a read-only tree (e.g. mounted read-only per NFS), or a
tree that's shared across many different systems and platforms.

In Debian's case, the directive is to keep *all* system-wide configuration
files in /etc. The /usr tree (less /usr/local) should potentially be
mountable read-only. Variable data goes into /var. That's also the sketch of
the Linux Filesystem Standard (now FHS).

Btw, I think as a consequence even site.py should be moved from
lib/python1.X to /etc.

In the end, I guess this is a philosophical question, and the answer will be
different depending on your viewpoint (standalone Windoid/Macoid machines or
homo/heterogeneous networked systems potentially sharing a common filespace=
).

    Gregor
   =20

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