[Distutils] Re: PEP 262: Database of Installed Python Packages

[Nicolas Chauvat]

On Wed, 27 Mar 2002, A.M. Kuchling wrote:

> A package database is a necessary prequisite for managing the Python
> packages installed on a system.  PEP 262 lists the requirements for
> such a database and specifies a storage format for it.
> 
> I'd like to get this into Python 2.3, hopefully with a
> still-to-be-specified package management tool.  Assuming no one points
> out some requirement or use case missing from this draft of the PEP,
> my next step will be to write a proposed interface, post that draft,
> and then implement the PEP and integrate it with the Distutils.
> 
> Comments can be posted to comp.lang.python or to the Distutils SIG.

Here is an item for the wishlist:

Installing a new package and recording its name and file-list in a
database is one thing. RPM does that. Easily maintaining a package-based
system is another. APT+DPKG does that thanks to all the features it has
over RPM (downloading the list of available packages from a mirror of the
unified repository, checking integrity, calculating dependencies, etc.),
but also thanks to the work of hundreds of debian developers that take
care of all the dependencies between packages and upload their packages to
a central coherent repository.

I would be cool to have the equivalent for Python. We more or less already
have that with Debian, for Python extension packages are packaged as
Debian packages and can be upgraded on one debian host with a single ATP
command.

To my knowledge, APT has nothing DPKG-specific. If what we are after is to
let people manage and upgrade their installed python packages. What about
replacing DPKG with its Python couterpart and let APT handle the rest of
the trouble? Is it really needed to fully implement yet another packaging
system?

Or is the proposal just about a DPKG-replacement for Python packages and
did the mention of APT at the beginning of the PEP lead me to a
misunderstanding?

My last question: why should we have package management system "internal"
to a Python installation. Isn't it the role of the distro to handle
packages and should't we focus on helping out the existing distro tools
deal with Python extensions instead?

My 2 Eurocents.

-- 
Nicolas Chauvat

http://www.logilab.com - "Mais oł est donc Ornicar ?" - LOGILAB, Paris (France)