[Distutils] how can I egt the packages and modules in a distribution?

[Chris Withers]

P.J. Eby wrote:
>> I'm trying to write a scanner than looks for SQLAlchemy table objects 
>> and it would be great to be able to pass a distribution name rather 
>> than a set of dotted package names...
> 
> get_distribution('projectname').get_metadata('top_level.txt').splitlines() 
> will return you a list of top-level package or module names provided by 
> the package.

Ah, okay. I assume this will only work for packages that use setuptools?

> Subpackages you'll have to find yourself; the pkgutil module in 2.5+ has 
> a walk_packages() that might be helpful.
> 
> (Note that if there are packages installed in "flat" form (e.g. 
> pip-installed or system-installed), you may see overlapping packages in 
> the same directory, so simply walking packages in a distribution 
> object's base directory may include packages and modules from another 
> project.)

I assume this is only a problem for namespace packages?
(ie: if so packages each supply part of a namespace, they will both have 
the namespace listed in top_level.txt, right?)

How do static resources returned with pkg_resources.resource_filename 
and friends fare when packages are installed in a "flat" form?

Chris

-- 
Simplistix - Content Management, Batch Processing & Python Consulting
            - http://www.simplistix.co.uk