[Distutils] Enterprise Python - Multicomponent Projects

Tin Tvrtković tinchester at gmail.com
Wed Apr 16 19:02:25 CEST 2014


I confess I haven't had a chance to familiarize myself with Buildout, 
and will do so soon.

Thanks for the tip, Jim.

On 16.04.2014 18:57, Jim Fulton wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 16, 2014 at 12:18 PM, Tin Tvrtković <tinchester at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hello packaging community,
>>
>> I'm investigating ways of setting up Python projects at my workplace. We're
>> predominantly a Java shop, but we might be dipping our toes in Python waters
>> (finally!) due to a fortuitous project and my multi-year insistence, so I'm
>> contemplating how to set up our Python build system to minimize workflow
>> differences for other developers (well, and myself).
>>
>> I've actually written uš a lengthy description of Maven and why we use it
>> but I'll spare you for now. :) To keep the story short, I'm interested in
>> options for setting up a multi-module Python project. By 'multi-module' I
>> don't mean a single setuptools-based project with several .py files inside,
>> but a way of triggering a complex build process with a single command that
>> would build all sub-modules (essentially sub-projects) and produce a number
>> of end artifacts - just like Maven. Imagine a repository containing 30
>> separate Django apps, packaged independently, 10 utility libraries, 10
>> Django projects combining those app, and 10 RPM building projects for
>> packaging it all up for deployment.
>>
>> As far as I know, just using setuptools isn't adequate for a workflow like
>> this - setuptools deals with the build process (testing, packaging, etc) of
>> a single project only. Solutions that come to mind are: a hierarchy of
>> Makefiles, shell scripts, or maybe Twitter's Pants, which sort of looks like
>> Maven for Python but would probably need contributions to do what we want,
>> and looks predisposed to building PEX files which, while very interesting,
>> I'm not looking to do right now. None of these solutions are really ideal,
>> especially if I want to support development on Windows (which I absolutely
>> want).
>>
>> I've even thought about actually using Maven, but that's just a Pandora's
>> box of problems waiting to happen.
>>
>> I'd appreciate insight on this from anyone who's thought about (and maybe
>> solved) problems like this. I'm also willing to engage and contribute to
>> improving the situation, especially if there's low hanging fruit to be
>> picked. How do other companies handle large Python repositories with a lot
>> of subcomponents?
> Checkout Buildout, http://www.buildout.org
>
> It addresses a lot of the same problems.  Of course, for Python, compiling is
> (mostly) not all that important.  For us (Zope Corporation) buildout
> is more about
> assembly/deployment, both for development and production, that building.
>
> Jim
>



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