[Distutils] Module import order issues.

[Brian Allen Vanderburg II]

The issue I'm having is when I install a test/local version of a package
in my user site-packages, but the same package is also installed in a
system path and has a .pth entry in the system easy-install.pth.  It
seems that from a path perspective, items under the user path should
automatically take precedence over the system path.  However, because of
the way the paths are rearranged in easy-install.pth, the system path
always takes precedence since the easy-install.pth line moves all added
items to the front of the path.

So while it seems like the path should be something like:

cwd:core-paths:user-site-paths:user-pth-paths:system-dist-paths:system-pth-paths

The path turns out to be:

cwd:user-pth-paths:system-pth-paths:core-paths:user-site-paths:system-dist-paths

Is there a reason why the .pth files even contain the final line that
rearranges the paths for all the .eggs to be at the start of the system
path?

For the time being, my work-around is to manually add a .pth file to my
user site-packages path for each item in site-packages as well, and add
the lines needed so that when the system easy-install.pth is processed,
it doesn't move all:

import sys; sys.__plen = len(sys.path)
<my custom entries for each item in user site packages>
import sys; new=sys.path[sys.__plen:]; del sys.path[sys.__plen:];
p=getattr(sys,'__egginsert',0); sys.path[p:p]=new; sys.__egginsert =
p+len(new)

All of that is required, because without it, sys.__egginsert will still
be unset, and when site.py processes the system path, items in
easy-install.pth will be moved above any user .pth
items as well.

However, ideally it seems like this path should automatically have
precedence over system packages, and it would if not for this line in
the various easy-install.pth files:

import sys; new=sys.path[sys.__plen:]; del sys.path[sys.__plen:];
p=getattr(sys,'__egginsert',0); sys.path[p:p]=new; sys.__egginsert =
p+len(new)

I guess I just find myself wondering what is the purpose of the above
line in easy-install.pth files (for python3, but apparently not
python2), and why not just keep the path in the order that site.py would
add them.

Thanks,

Brian Allen Vanderburg II