[Distutils] Bootstrap script for package management tool in Python 2.7 (Was: Re: [Python-Dev] At least one package management tool for 2.7)

[Tarek Ziadé]

On Mon, Mar 29, 2010 at 9:30 AM, anatoly techtonik <techtonik at gmail.com> wrote:
> So, there won't be any package management tool shipped with Python 2.7
> and users will have to download and install `setuptools` manually as
> before:
>
>  "search" -> "download" -> "unzip" -> "cmd" -> "cd" -> "python
> setup.py install"
>
>
> Therefore I still propose shipping bootstrap package that instruct
> user how to download and install an actual package  management tool
> when users tries to use it. So far I know only one stable tool -
> `easy_install` - a part of `setuptools` package.

There are other tools to install something in a vanilla Python :

- pip  (which also have an uninstall feature)
- distutils
- distribute

>
> The required behavior for very basic user friendliness:
> 1. user installs Python 2.7
> 2. user issues `python -m easy_install something`
> 3. user gets message
> 'easy_install' tool is not installed on this system. To make it
> available, download and install `setuptools` package from
> http://pypi.python.org/pypi/setuptools/

Are you thinking about something generic ?

Like, being able to call :

$ python -m ANYTHING

And get an error message saying that the ANYTHING script is not installed ?
Then have a registry somewhere to get the name of the project that
owns the ANYTHING script ?


[..]
> So, do we need a PEP for that? How else can I know if consensus is
> reached? Anybody is willing to elaborate on implementation?

I see two paths here:
1 - do you want to define a general mechanism for Python to install scripts ?
2 - are you just suggesting to have this mechanism only for Package Managers ?

In case of 2), what you would need to do is propose an extension to
PEP 376, we are currently working
on, then we can add it there once people have discussed it on
distutils-SIG, or maybe create a new PEP if the topic is too big to
fit in 376.

>
>
> P.S. Please be careful to reply to relevant lists

Yes, so if it's 2) let's keep this thread in Distutils-SIG.
Cross-posting like this makes it hard to follow.

Tarek

-- 
Tarek Ziadé | http://ziade.org