[Distutils] Metadata extension discovery?

[Daniel Holth]

I didn't catch what this kind of extension was for. Would you generate
a wheel, add extensions to it with a tool, and then install it
afterwards? Why would this be any easier than appending to the
metadata file? Would anyone understand it? I would prefer that the
.dist-info directory stay subdirectory-free.

On Fri, Sep 12, 2014 at 2:24 AM, Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 12 September 2014 07:51, Marcus Smith <qwcode at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Is the assumption for extensions in PEP426 that they would be added to the
>> one an only structure (in pydist.json) at the time of building the archive?
>> i.e. something that the project author adds.
>>
>> The reason I ask is related to my comment in the other thread occuring right
>> now about how to handle external dependencies.   If the idea of using
>> extensions for external dependencies is going to work (and not require the
>> project authors to solely maintain it), then PEP426 would need to support
>> some system of discovery that can layer on more metadata at the time of
>> install that is not present in the archive.
>
> This is actually an open question. One possible way to go would be to
> add a "pydist.d" directory to wheels and the installed metadata, where
> packages can drop arbitrary additional extension files (where the file
> is called "name.of.extension.json").
>
> A lot of Linux tools with plugin systems or otherwise extensible
> configuration have switched to that model, since adding files to a
> directory is much easier than editing an existing config file in a way
> that can be cleanly reverted.
>
> Regards,
> Nick.
>
> P.S. OK, I take back my earlier comment about PEP 426 being almost
> ready to go :)
>
> --
> Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia
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