[Distutils] PyPI Download Counts

[holger krekel]

Hi Florian,

On Mon, May 27, 2013 at 10:36 +0200, Florian Friesdorf wrote:
> Hi Holger,
> 
> holger krekel <holger at merlinux.eu> writes:
> > On Mon, May 27, 2013 at 17:41 +1000, Nick Coghlan wrote:
> >> On Mon, May 27, 2013 at 5:27 PM, holger krekel <holger at merlinux.eu> wrote:
> >> > Not having download counts maybe lets us think harder about
> >> > better metrics.  The number of projects using a package as a dep
> >> > might be one.
> >> 
> >> With the current downside being that it's hard for PyPI to figure out
> >> that number, too :)
> >
> > Yip.  But something like Vinaj's red-dove approach or Marius' get_deps.py
> > could provide a base.  We might think about a docker instance which 
> > could allow to quickly spawn new light VMs so we can isolate setup.py runs.
> > (Yes, it's only Linux but it'd be a start).
> 
> nix and nixpkgs allow this isolation on-top off linux, freebsd, OS X and
> theoretically also cygwin (not sure how good cygwin is supported at the
> moment).
> 
> http://nixos.org/nix/
> http://nixos.org/nixpkgs/
> 
> From nixos.org:
> Nix is a purely functional package manager. This means that it can
> ensure that an upgrade to one package cannot break others, that you can
> always roll back to previous version, that multiple versions of a
> package can coexist on the same system, and much more.
> 
> Nixpkgs is a large collection of packages that can be installed with the
> Nix package manager.

Interesting stuff, didn't know about it.  

Did you post this as a suggestion for provisioning an environment to 
run setup.py (on nix-supported platforms)?  If so, i am not sure how it
would help exactly.  I guess myself i'd aim for a 80% solution for discovering
dependencies first.  Simplest/quickest wins there :)

> >> Agreed it would be a good number to publish once it's more readily
> >> available, too.
> >
> > I think "dep" numbers are mostly interesting for libraries, not so
> > much for applications like django or pyramid or tools like nose/pytest.
> >
> > Another more practical data point would be "does this package even
> > install on win32/linux/osx py26/py27/py33" and even better, do its automated
> > tests pass?
> 
> http://hydra.nixos.org/build/5062796
> 
> > If we could evolve to have this info published on pypi.python.org
> > it would be quite useful i think.  I am actually currently implementing
> > a system which enables this (the "devpi" system) so i don't mean this all just
> > as "nice to have" theory.  I aim to present the status of this work 
> > at EuroPython.  
> 
> Nice! Looking forward to that.
> 
> If you have any questions about nix/nixpkgs/nixos, especially about the
> way python packages are packaged, please let me know. Also, it's not set
> in stone.

are you going to be at EP?  It's a long conference and i am more than
happy to sit together on this topic for a bit sometimes.

best,
holger


> Personally, I'd love to see hydra.python.org providing builds of all
> pypi packages and would be happy to help. Also including Domen and Rok
> for whome I assume the same.


> 
> You might have other tools that are better suited for you.
> 
> regards
> florian
> -- 
> Florian Friesdorf <flo at chaoflow.net>
>   GPG FPR: 7A13 5EEE 1421 9FC2 108D  BAAF 38F8 99A3 0C45 F083
> Jabber/XMPP: flo at chaoflow.net
> IRC: chaoflow on freenode,ircnet,blafasel,OFTC