[Distutils] Provisionally accepting PEP 517's declarative build system interface

[Paul Moore]

On 30 May 2017 at 19:17, Brett Cannon <brett at python.org> wrote:
> Just to make sure I'm following this correctly, Donald is asking for:
>
> A way for pip to ask back-ends what files should be in an sdist from a
> source checkout or to make an actual sdist
>
> Because sdists are a thing and so we should support them properly
> To make it so building wheels interact with just the files from an sdist
> instead of skipping that and going straight from a source checkout
>
> Have this be a part of PEP 517 or at least a requirement for back-ends to
> support so it doesn't get left out
>
> Am I missing anything?

That's it basically. The only nuance is that there's a debate over the
idea of a "sdist" - the term carries some baggage in terms of implying
a need for a standard, static metadata, etc.

In this context, all we need is the list of files to include, so
backends that don't want to buy into the idea of a "sdist" format yet
(IIRC, flit may be in this position) can just say "these are the
files" and not worry about the whole question of a standard sdist
format.

Paul