[Python-Dev] [Distutils] how to easily consume just the parts of eggs that are good for you

[Gael Varoquaux]

On Wed, Apr 09, 2008 at 02:26:31PM -0400, Stanley A. Klein wrote:
> The rpm and deb package managers (and their yum and other higher level
> dependency managers) do a lot of things:

> 1.  They install packages and maintain databases of what packages were
> installed
> 2.  They manage dependencies
> 3.  They support clean uninstalling of packages
> 4.  They can query packages, both installed (via their databases) and not
> yet installed (e.g., as rpm or deb files), to determine attributes, such
> as files they install, dependencies, and other information defined at
> packaging time.
> 5.  They build packages and (in some cases) can rebuild packages.
> 6.  They can verify packages for integrity and security purposes.
> 7.  They can download package files and maintain archives of installed
> package files for use as local repositories.

You are collapsing three different functionalities in one:

  * Dealing with repositories and downloading: yum/apt

 * Installing + uninstalling packages, and dealing with system
   consistency (thus checking the dependencies are available): rpm/dpkg

  * Building

For me it is important that the 3 are separated:

  * I may want to download the dependencies of a package to burn to a CD
    for a computer that does not have internet access.

  * I may want to send a tarball to a build server that does the building,
    but no install (so as not to corrupt my working system).

Cheers,

Gaël