[Numpy-discussion] Proposal: stop supporting 'setup.py install'; start requiring 'pip install .' instead

[Ralf Gommers]

On Sun, Nov 1, 2015 at 1:59 AM, Ralf Gommers <ralf.gommers at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Sun, Nov 1, 2015 at 1:54 AM, Ralf Gommers <ralf.gommers at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Oct 29, 2015 at 8:11 PM, Warren Weckesser <
>> warren.weckesser at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Oct 27, 2015 at 12:31 AM, Nathaniel Smith <njs at pobox.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi all,
>>>>
>>>> Apparently it is not well known that if you have a Python project
>>>> source tree (e.g., a numpy checkout), then the correct way to install
>>>> it is NOT to type
>>>>
>>>>   python setup.py install   # bad and broken!
>>>>
>>>> but rather to type
>>>>
>>>>   pip install .
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> FWIW, I don't see any mention of this in the numpy docs, but I do see a
>>> lot of instructions involving `setup.py build` and `setup.py install`.
>>> See, for example, INSTALL.txt.  Also see
>>>
>>> http://docs.scipy.org/doc/numpy/user/install.html#building-from-source
>>> So I guess it is not surprising that it is not well known.
>>>
>>
>> Indeed, install docs are always hopelessly outdated. And we have too many
>> of them. There's duplicate info in INSTALL.txt and
>> http://scipy.org/scipylib/building/index.html for example. We should
>> probably just empty out INSTALL.txt and simply put a link in it to the html
>> docs.
>>
>> I've created an issue with a long todo list and a bunch of links:
>> https://github.com/numpy/numpy/issues/6599. Feel free to add stuff. Or
>> to go fix something:)
>>
>
> Oh, and: looking at this thread there haven't been serious unanswered
> concerns (at least in my perception), so without more discussion I'd
> interpret the current status as "go ahead".
>

Hmm, after some more testing I'm going to have to bring up a few concerns
myself:

1. ``pip install .`` still has a clear bug; it starts by copying everything
(including .git/ !) to a tempdir with shutil, which is very slow. And the
fix for that will go via ``setup.py sdist``, which is still slow.

2. ``pip install .`` silences build output, which may make sense for some
usecases, but for numpy it just sits there for minutes with no output after
printing "Running setup.py install for numpy". Users will think it hangs
and Ctrl-C it. https://github.com/pypa/pip/issues/2732

3. ``pip install .`` refuses to upgrade an already installed development
version. For released versions that makes sense, but if I'm in a git tree
then I don't want it to refuse because 1.11.0.dev0+githash1 compares equal
to 1.11.0.dev0+githash2. Especially after waiting a few minutes, see (1).


I've sent a (incomplete) fix for the shutil thing (
https://github.com/pypa/pip/pull/3219) and will comment on some open issues
on the pip tracker. But I'm thinking that for now we should go with some
printed message first. Something like "please use ``pip install .`` if you
want reliable uninstall behavior. See <somelink> for more details".

Pip has worked quite well for me in the past, but the above makes me thing
it's not much of an improvement over use of setuptools.....

Ralf
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