[Distutils] Version number required for setup?

[M.-A. Lemburg]

Thomas Heller wrote:
> 
> distutils/command/dist.py contains this code
> 
>     # -- Metadata query methods ----------------------------------------
>     ...
>     def get_version(self):
>         return self.version or "???"
> 
> which returns '???' as a version number if none is specified
> in the setup script.
> 
> Since the bdist commands construct a filename containing the version
> number this leads to an invalid filename under windows, and the builds
> fail with a traceback like this:
> 
>     zip -rq D:\workspace\projects\epos\bin\dist\startup-???.win32.zip .
>     creating 'D:\workspace\projects\epos\bin\dist\startup-???.win32.zip'
>     and adding '.' to it
>     error: D:\workspace\projects\epos\bin\dist\startup-???.win32.zip:
>     Invalid argument
> 
> The fix for bug #409403 (Signal an error if the distribution's metadata
> has no version) fixed this behaviour by requiring a version number:
> 
>          if self.metadata.version is None:
>               raise DistutilsSetupError, \
>                     "No version number specified for distribution"
> 
> In the meantime, version 1.47 of dist.py, this code has been removed again.
> Log message: "Back out the requirement to supply a version number".
> Why was this done?

No idea and I think that we should indeed require the version
number -- it's not much of an effort for a developer to add
a version number after all.
 
> I do not know whether we should require a version number or not, but at
> least the "???" string literal should be changed to something which can
> be part of a valid filename under windows (although IMO 'UNKNOWN' isn't
> really a better version number than '???')...

How about '0.0.0' ?!

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
CEO eGenix.com Software GmbH
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