[Pytest-commit] Issue #313: Handle mutliple backends for virtual environments (hpk42/tox)

[Cyril ROELANDT]

New issue 313: Handle mutliple backends for virtual environments
https://bitbucket.org/hpk42/tox/issues/313/handle-mutliple-backends-for-virtual

Cyril ROELANDT:

Currently, tox only handles "virtualenv" as a backend. There are other ways of creating isolated environments in which packages can be installed and tests can be run: one may want to use Nix (https://nixos.org/nix/) or Guix (http://www.gnu.org/software/guix/), two very nice functional package managers that can replace virtualenv+pip.

These package managers fix some issues witnessed when using virtualenv  (the environment variables leak into the "isolated" environment, external commands can be used, etc.); they also have drawbacks: some packages available on PyPI may not be available in Nix/Guix, some features may not be supported...

I wrote a blog article explaining why one might want to move away from virtualenv (http://perso.aquilenet.fr/~steap//blog/2015/10/14/guix-tox/) as well as a proof of concept that allows users to use Guix as a replacement for virtualenv/pip (see the latests commits at https://git.framasoft.org/Steap/guix-tox/commits/guix-tox). Would you be interested in making tox a more generic piece of software, able to handle multiple package management backends?