[Distutils] PEP 376 - install/uninstall script in Distutils ?

[Ian Bicking]

OK, just thinking through a little what it would mean to have an
installation tool in Python core...

On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 5:08 PM, Tarek Ziadé <ziade.tarek at gmail.com> wrote:

> > But then I don't think Python should have a built-in installer or package
> > manager. There are excellent tools already available (Buildout, pip,
> dpkg,
> > RPM), it would be better if we guided people to these tools and let them
> > pick the right one for their installation use case.
>
> I wouldn't put zc.buildout in the same level than pip or easy_install.
> and I guess what we would have in DIstutils would be quite similar to
> what easy_install or pip offers.
>

I think there are questions about scope.  zc.buildout does more than pip,
and pip does more than easy_install.  I think easy_install has some
important usability problems, otherwise I wouldn't have written pip.  pip on
the other hand has features that extend its scope in ways that might make it
hard to include in the standard library.  For instance the version control
support, requirement files, bundles, and some miscellaneous functionality
like zipping.  Some of that could be separated out, though the version
control support is more difficult.

Also it really mostly makes sense in the context of virtualenv.  I'm
strongly considering having an interactive warning if you try to install
something with pip into the global site packages directory.  PYTHONUSERBASE
is an okay solution (not great, but okay), so I don't think this is
contingent on something like virtualenv being standard... but it would
help.  I'm not sure how I'd pursue the virtualenv concept in Python core, as
it's more a question of the concept of virtualenv than the implementation
itself, but if there was general interest I could try.

Anyway, it seems odd to me to include a tool that hasn't been written yet,
when there are tools that are being used and developed.  OTOH, the only tool
that is stable enough (not just bug wise, but stable as in isn't-changing)
is easy_install.  But while pip uses setuptools, it doesn't use easy_install
at all, so including easy_install would really only make pip development
harder.

That said, there might be parts of pip or easy_install which would be
useful.  I'm not sure what those would be though.

-- 
Ian Bicking  |  http://blog.ianbicking.org
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