[Distutils] [issue1054967] bdist_deb - Debian packager

[Andrew Straw]

I am moving the venue for this discussion on stdeb to the distutils-sig 
(from http://bugs.python.org/issue1054967 ). I think this is better 
discussed there.


On 4/29/10 10:16 PM, Éric Araujo wrote:
> Éric Araujo<merwok at netwok.org>  added the comment:
>
> Andrew, I am uncomfortable with stdeb. (Trying to express respectful
> constructive critique, not just picking on your project.) The version in
> Debian testing, 0.5.1-1, still requires setuptools (actually only
> pkg_resources, which is split into another package in Debian, for space
> or politic reasons).
I see, thanks for pointing this out. I thought pkg_resources was in the 
stdlib (or on that track). I will investigate.

>   The py2dsc script seems to be obsoleted by the
> to-be “debian” command.
Can you refer me to the source code and/or documentation for that 
command? I was not previously aware of it.

>   The pypi-install script seems dangerous to me,
> because downloading unverified software and putting it into the system
> seems a rather bad idead (a.k.a. “sudo ./setup.py install considered
> harmful”).
>    
Yes, some might consider it dangerous, although it does of course 
require root privileges before installing anything system-wide (and only 
builds the .deb file with user privileges). Nevertheless, it is a useful 
tool and safer than "sudo python ./setup.py install" because one can 
always do "sudo dpkg --purge python-some-package" to remove that package 
again.


> python-debian provides useful support code for generating and reading
> debian formats. A quick read show the code would benefit from some 2.6
> modernizing (i.e. gain in simplicity and readability by using modern
> idioms and stdlib functions).
Yes, I'm not particularly proud of the code in stdeb -- please feel free 
to hack away. Any and all improvements accepted, preferably in 
bite-sized commits to a fork on github.

> Would using this package in stdeb /
> distutils2.command.debian instead of shelling out bring anything?
>    
(Ah, I gather this is the debian command you refer to above?) Not 
knowing that command, I'm not sure what would be gained. If the command 
depends on debhelper (by shelling out to dh_make), it would remove that 
dependency. It also brings all the options described in the README.rst file.

-Andrew