[Distutils] What metadata does pip actually need about sdists?

[Paul Moore]

On 12 October 2015 at 07:14, Nathaniel Smith <njs at pobox.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Oct 11, 2015 at 10:55 PM, Marcus Smith <qwcode at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> So instead, the current plan is that we're going
>>> to drop the libraries inside a wheel and upload it to PyPI:
>>
>> aha... ok, now it's clearer where you're coming from.
>> but using what platform in the wheel tag?
>> linux wheels are blocked currently
>
> Windows is the first goal, likely OS X after that (OS X provides a bit
> more in the base system so distributing these external dependencies
> isn't as urgent, but it would be good eventually), and yeah, doing
> this for Linux would obviously require unblocking Linux wheels.

I'm running out of time to keep up with this mega-thread, so I'm
starting to only skim at this point. Apologies if I've missed
something that has already been said as a result...

My view is that if you distribute a library (e.g., openblas) in a
wheel, then it's essentially a "Python dependency" at that point,
insofar as it can participate in the standard package dependency
process in exactly the same way as (say) numpy itself does. So if you
use that approach, I no longer see *any* reason why you can't work
within the existing dependency process. Is that right?

> We do have a plan for unblocking them, but the critical person is a
> bit busy so I'm not sure how long it will be before it can be unveiled
> :-).

Obviously, as Marcus said, you need Linux wheels unblocked, and that
means being able to specify compatibility cleanly, but as you say
here, you're looking at that.

Paul