[Distutils] question about setuptools

[Phillip J. Eby]

At 09:42 PM 9/13/2005 -0700, Robert Kern wrote:
>Phillip J. Eby wrote:
> > At 06:43 PM 9/13/2005 -0700, Robert Kern wrote:
> >
> >>My request is that if --prefix is provided, then the value of
> >>--site-dirs be calculated from it.
> >
> > I'd suggest using PYTHONHOME instead, since that will actually make Python
> > run from that directory.
>
>That's not what these users need, however. Python is installed to /usr
>and the standard library and all of the third-party packages that are
>part of Debian's packaging system go under /usr/lib/python2.x/ .
>Third-party packages that are compiled by the user go under
>/usr/local/lib/python2.x/site-packages/ . The way everybody accomplishes
>this is by setting --prefix=/usr/local for distutils.

Well, as long as it ends up on sys.path *and* processes .pth files, it 
should be fine.  Question: are these /usr/local/* versions on sys.path 
*before* the /usr versions?  Or after?


> > However, my main concern is not making these path
> > calculations any more screwy than they already have to be, as they are
> > already quite complex.  So, if you can suggest a patch to implement your
> > desired behavior that doesn't break anything else and doesn't make my head
> > explode upon reviewing it, I'll be happy to check it in.  :)
>
>The path part isn't hard. If --prefix or --home is provided, the install
>command will calculate the path for you and place it in
>install.install_lib . The hard part seems to be figuring out whether the
>user explicitly provided --prefix or --install-lib or neither.

I'll take your word for it.  :)  Again, I'll be happy to look at a patch, 
but I don't have the bandwidth to figure out this particular setup.

One possible hack: assume that any directory on sys.path whose basename is 
"site-packages" is a valid --site-dir.  The worst that can do is fail.  :)