[Distutils] How to implement ‘setup.py’ functionality that itself needs third-party distributions

[Ben Finney]

Daniel Holth <dholth at gmail.com> writes:

> Have you had a go with https://bitbucket.org/dholth/setup-requires ?

Thanks for the pointer.

> My version of setup-requires replaces setup.py with a short script

Why two separate files? Why not add the code in ‘setup.py’, prior to the
‘setup()’ call?

> that uses pip to install the setup requirements as specified in a
> special section in setup.cfg file

This seems even more fragile than what I'm currently faced with, to be
honest.

I'm trying to get away from hard dependencies on specific ways of
obtaining and installing packages and instead use declarative “I need
this situation, make it so” that remain relevant without alteration as
Distutils continues to evolve.

Adding explicit parsing of the current Setuptools config format, and
explicit calls to specific ‘pip’ command lines, seems to make the
packaging more dependent on fast-changing APIs, not less. Perhaps I'm
misunderstanding?

-- 
 \        “If you go parachuting, and your parachute doesn't open, and |
  `\        you friends are all watching you fall, I think a funny gag |
_o__)             would be to pretend you were swimming.” —Jack Handey |
Ben Finney