[Distutils] buildout and distribution packaging

[Tarek Ziadé]

On Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 8:18 AM, Mihamina Rakotomandimby (R12y)
<mihamina at lab.vectoris.fr> wrote:
> Hi all
> More and more python projects are "switching" to buildout.
> The one I face directly is Plone.
>
> I also administer servers and really love using their package management
> tools: If I use a Fedora (resp. Debian, Gentoo,...), I insist using yum/rpm
> (resp. apt/dpkgn, emerge,...) to install a software, and if the software
> needs some tunning, I act on the source package, then compile+install my
> tuned package.
>
> The question is to know wether the current "fashion" to switch to buildout
> will make the distribution packager work easier or harder.

A whole lot easier if your packager agrees that you are delivering an
*application*
composed of code, and not a list of packages.

You can build a big RPM out of your buildout and provide it,
or a .deb, with the right spec file so your various files are placed
in the right
place in the system tree.

The fact that this application might have a package present elsewhere
on your system, maybe another version, is unavoidable today and your
packager might say that it's a security whole, and that it makes it harder
for him to upgrade your app in case a package must be updated.

But your application *has* to be a black box and you have to provide upgrades
yourself.

That said imho, one day, Python will evolve and provide multi-version
support, and a feature for an application to pick the versions its needs.
It's just too fuzzy and too controversial right now.

Tarek

-- 
Tarek Ziadé | http://ziade.org