[Distutils] why would you ever need to specify setuptools as a dependency?

[Fred Drake]

On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 12:26 PM, Chris Withers <chris at simplistix.co.uk> wrote:
> You're ignoring the fact that for the information in install_requires to
> even be parsed, you need to have setuptools present.

install_requires is processed at install time.  At that time, clearly,
setuptools/distribute is present.

That's not necessarily the case at run time.  I see no reason to
expect that having setuptools or distribute on sys.path at install
time would cause it to necessarily be on the path at run time if my
package doesn't provide information that it's needed at run time.

> I'll say it again: it seems pointless specifying a requirement that has to
> be met before any requirement specifications can even be processed...

It doesn't sound to me like you've used buildout nearly as much as easy install.


  -Fred

-- 
Fred L. Drake, Jr.    <fdrake at gmail.com>
"Chaos is the score upon which reality is written." --Henry Miller