[Python-Dev] Making directories and zip files executable

[Phillip J. Eby]

At 10:48 AM 9/11/2007 -0700, Guido van Rossum wrote:
>I could use a refresher on how PJE's patch solves Andy's problem.

It does the same thing, but with __main__ instead of __zipmain__, and 
without needing the -z.  So instead of "python -z foo.zip" you can 
just do "python foo.zip".  This means you can use a reasonably 
cross-platform #! header that invokes Python via "env".

If you tried to use -z with env, Andy's approach would either only 
work on BSDish platforms that support multiple options to a #! 
command, or else you'd have to ditch the "env" and hardcode the patht 
to Python.  So not needing a command-line option improves the 
effective portability/usability of the executable zip file.

Also, being able to run "python directory_to_be_zipped_later" also 
lets you test/develop your program without it needing to be zipped first.


>On 9/11/07, Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
> > The local patch I have for PEP 366 is somewhat stale, and before I bring
> > it up to date with SVN head, I'd like to close out the issue raised a
> > while back regarding making zip files executable [1].
> >
> > The original proposal was for a new command line switch, but PJE came up
> > with a patch (attached to the roundup tracker item) that uses the
> > existing import machinery to avoid the need for the extra command line
> > switch (by checking if the argument is a valid sys.path entry before
> > checking to see if it is an executable script).
> >
> > I personally like the idea (and PJE's approach), and the performance
> > impact on script startup time appears to be negligible (although I
> > haven't performed any high precision measurements - I'm just using the
> > Linux time utility on a short test script with and without the patch).
> >
> > Are there any objections to my committing this?
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Nick.
> >
> > [1] http://bugs.python.org/issue1739468