[Distutils] Buildout: Recipes with extras

[Phillip J. Eby]

At 01:01 AM 2/17/2007 +0100, Thomas Lotze wrote:
>It's possible to
>install a distribution without its extra dependencies so that this
>distribution's scripts which need an extra fail when run. Why does
>easy_install install these scripts at all when it is to install the
>distribution without the respective necessary extras?

Because if it were to install the extras, this would mean they're not 
"extra" any more, so they should be in the project's main 
dependencies.  It's not a perfect solution, but it seemed the 
least-damaging default.


>I wonder why all of the easy_install functionality isn't formulated as a
>package that others, including zc.buildout and your setuptools 0.7
>installer function, can use.

Because it started out as an extremely short and relatively simple script 
and only gradually evolved into the gigantic mess it is today.  0.7 is when 
the refactoring back into reusable pieces will happen.