[Distutils] Beta release of zc.buildout 1.5.0

[Gary Poster]

I have re-released zc.buildout 1.4.3 as 1.5.0b2, and re-released zc.recipe.egg 1.2.2 as 1.2.3b2.  My tests seem to show everything back to normal--I was able to build Chris's initial problem example as a smoketest.

Next week I'll announce betas *not* uploaded to PyPI.  These will solve the problems identified today.  I'll provide instructions on how to download and install them locally for tests.

I appreciate your feedback today, and will appreciate it even more when you try out those betas next week!

In closing, I'll summarize the problems identified today with 1.5.0b1, with their statuses.

- virtualenv + zc.buildout fails.  1.5.0b1 expected the -S of executables to work properly, and it doesn't for virtualenv.  This may not be fixable within virtualenv, per Carl's email.  I have a change to zc.buildout that I think will work around this in a local branch.  Tests fail, so it needs more work.  This is the most critical problem identified.

- zc.buildout's bootstrap honors more options in the .cfg file, which caused Jonathan some grief.  I'm classifying this as a "Won't Fix" unless I get pushback, per my earlier mail.

- If you have buildout installed in your system Python's site-packages, bootstrap falls over.  I have not duped this but I think I know the cause.  I'll try to dupe, and ask Rodrigo to confirm a fix when I'm ready next week.

- zc.recipe.testing's tests showed some API calls to zc.buildout that failed mysteriously.  I have not investigated that yet.  I know of several other existing recipes that use zc.buildout's API that work fine.  I'm hopeful that this will be easy to diagnose and address.

- Tarek raised the problem that we can't easily handle beta packages of critical packaging infrastructure.  Jim countered with information on how buildout already does handle it.  However, I don't think that this helps with bootstrapping.  Moreover, it requires explicit configuration to get some of the behavior Jim describes.  I plan to address Tarek's concerns for now by having betas available through alternate means than PyPI.  However, this will require more active participation from you all to help prepare a smooth release on PyPI.

Thank you all for your help.  Talk to you next week.

Gary