[Distutils] On vendoring binaries and headers with pypi packages

[Sylvain Corlay]

OK thanks!

I want to create a pypi package for xtensor and xtensor-python, and would
like it to place the headers in the same location as with the conda package
or Debian packages.

(Which are essentially built with a regular
`cmake -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=PREFIX; make install`)

The conda package puts things under `CONDA_PREFIX/include/xtensor[-python]`
and the Debian package `/usr/include/xtensor[-python]`.

It seems that wheel's data_files can achieve that very simply, and was
wondering if there was any drawback in this approach.

Sylvain


On Mon, May 15, 2017 at 11:45 PM, Nathaniel Smith <njs at pobox.com> wrote:

> No, I'm trying to ask, like, why you want that. Presumably you have some
> end goal in mind that you think this will help accomplish, and I think it
> would be helpful to know what that is :-).
>
> On May 15, 2017 2:42 PM, "Sylvain Corlay" <sylvain.corlay at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Let's say that you have an anaconda installation, and you install the
>> latest pyzmq from pypi instead of from the conda recipe.
>>
>> I would like the vendored libzmq to be placed under `PREFIX/bin` and the
>> headers under `PREFIX/include`, just as if I had either
>>
>>  - installed zmq with `cmake -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=PREFIX` and `make
>> install`
>>  - or installed the zeromq from the conda package.
>>
>> Similarly, for a system-wide install on linux distribution, the same
>> would hold with PREFIX=/usr
>>
>> On Mon, May 15, 2017 at 9:47 PM, Nathaniel Smith <njs at pobox.com> wrote:
>>
>>> What are you trying to accomplish by putting include files into
>>> virtualenvs?
>>>
>>> On May 15, 2017 10:29 AM, "Sylvain Corlay" <sylvain.corlay at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> When distributing python packages that depend on non-python components,
>>>> the typical way of doing this with general-purpose package managers (linux
>>>> distributions, conda) is to place binaries, headers, configuration and
>>>> other artefacts for these components in their respective natural locations
>>>> under the installation prefix (e.g. PREFIX/bin/, PREFIX/include/,
>>>> PREFIX/etc/,  PREFIX/share/).
>>>>
>>>> Now, if I have a python package that depends on such a thing (e.g.
>>>> pyzmq vs zmq), the pypi wheel for pyzmq will vendor a binary for libzmq as
>>>> package data.
>>>>
>>>> For the case of the header files, there is the distutils
>>>> `install_headers` directive, but the target directory is (typically) under
>>>> PREFIX/include/PythonX.Y, which is probably only a good choices for headers
>>>> of a C extension linked with this specific python installation.
>>>>
>>>> Would it make sense, when vendoring packages packages that don't depend
>>>> on the python version in a wheel to use `data_files` instead, and target
>>>> respectively the `bin`, `include`, `etc` and `share` subdirectories of the
>>>> prefix?
>>>>
>>>> Specifically, for the headers, one could do
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>     data_files      = [
>>>>         ('include/foobar', [list of the foobar header files])),
>>>>     ],
>>>>
>>>> Note: I was just using zmq as an example.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>>
>>>> Sylvain
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Distutils-SIG maillist  -  Distutils-SIG at python.org
>>>> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/distutils-sig
>>>>
>>>>
>>
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