[Distutils] [Python Language Summit] Distutils / Packaging survey

[Ben Finney]

Ian Bicking <ianb at colorstudy.com> writes:

> On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 12:39 PM, Floris Bruynooghe <
> floris.bruynooghe at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > I imagine things like libdir, prefix, datadir, docdir and other
> > things copied from autoconf. Where the defaults would be something
> > like:
> >
> > prefix = sys.prefix
> > libdir = sys.prefix/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages/pkgname
> > datadir = sys.prefix/share/mypackage
> > docdir = sys.prefix/share/doc/mypackage
> 
> I wouldn't want to use those. What goes in libdir, what goes in
> datadir?

Again, I expect Floris is using these terms in their traditional
meanings.

“library” would be a collection of executable code intended for use
as a unit; what Pythoncalls a “package” (or the degerate case of a
“module”).

“data” would be non-executable files used by the package that don't
fit any other (e.g. “documentation”) classification.

> I don't know, and frankly the distinctions start getting really
> arbitrary.

Hopefully that clarifies.

> I would rather see something like pkg_resources existing API, where
> there is some file that maps out how the local names of files (where
> they'd be in a checkout) map to their installed location, then the
> pkg_resources code could finds the real location of the file.

This loses the indirection that is so sorely needed of tagging
resources by *type*, so that their install location can be decided on
that basis.

Deciding on a file-by-file basis where files get installed is
something that distributors and packagers already have to do, and it's
a massive pain.

Allowing the developer to tag resources by type is a sensible division
of responsibility: the developer knows the *purpose* (and therefore
type) of the resource, and the packager knows the appropriate
*location* on the filesystem for resources of a particular type.

-- 
 \         “If life deals you lemons, why not go kill someone with the |
  `\     lemons (maybe by shoving them down his throat).” —Jack Handey |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney