[Distutils] buildout and system packages: a simpler idea?

[David Glick]

On 9/17/11 4:27 PM, Reinout van Rees wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Buildout and system packages are apparently hard. Buildout 1.5.x tries 
> hard to get it working, but I cannot get it to work (reliably), for 
> instance.
>
> Perhaps the problem is that we're trying too hard. Both buildout 1.5.x 
> and the osc.recipe.sysegg recipe that I'm using on 1.4.x are trying to 
> look up packages and trying to include them in the path.
>
> What you normally want is just to use the system's PIL and mapnik and 
> numpy. All stuff that you really don't want to build from source. So 
> you assume it is installed with a clicky-clicky installer on windows 
> and with apt-get on ubuntu.
>
> Why not use this assumption? Add an "assumed-available" option to 
> buildout that lists the eggs that are assumed to be available locally? 
> No need to actually search them (which is the thing that breaks 1.5.x 
> for me). Just make sure the regular python path is in place as the 
> last item in sys.path.
>
>
> Possible addition: allow a dotted path as a second parameter after the 
> "assumed-available" eggs: buildout tries to import that path to check 
> the availability of the egg that's assumed to be available.
>
>
> So: if you need system eggs, you won't run buildout without system 
> paths. Only thing left is to tell buildout that certain eggs are 
> available locally so that it doesn't search for it. Just assume 
> they're there and leave it at that.
collective.recipe.mockedeggs may be of use.