[Distutils] sdist default archive format

[Ben Finney]

Trent Mick <trentm at gmail.com> writes:

> My preferences is for .zip (that is what I use for my packages), the
> main reason is that Windows users can always unpack a .zip file. Often
> that is not true for .tar.gz or .tar.bz2 files.

The reverse is true on Unix. The tar-and-gzip format is extensively used
so it is pretty much guaranteed to be readable on any Unix system; the
Zip format does not have anywhere near the same level of guarantee.

I would think the best solution is to use the tar format (since, as
pointed out elsewhere, it has better support for symlinks and permission
flags that are often important when distributing works), and ensure that
distutils will include a tool for unpacking them with pure Python on
those platforms without external support for the format.

-- 
 \          “When we call others dogmatic, what we really object to is |
  `\   their holding dogmas that are different from our own.” —Charles |
_o__)                                                           Issawi |
Ben Finney