[Python-Dev] PEP 376 - get_egginfo_files

[Tarek Ziadé]

2009/7/5 Paul Moore <p.f.moore at gmail.com>:
> The PEP says:
>
> """
> get_egginfo_files(local=False) -> iterator of paths
>
> Iterates over the RECORD entries and return paths for each line if the
> path is pointing a file located in the .egg-info directory or one of
> its subdirectory.
> """
>
> Should this method really only return filenames noted in the RECORD
> file? Would it not be better for it to iterate over *all* files in the
> .egg-info directory?
> I understand that there shouldn't, in practice,
> be any files in that directory *not* mentioned in the RECORD file, but
> given that we already have get_installed_files to read the RECORD
> file, I would imagine it's better for this file to so something more
> than filter the return values from get_installed_files.

I don't see a use case for having more out of get_egginfo_files.
I still find it useful because to iterate over metadata files.

Maybe we could remove it and add a filter option for get_installed_files.
A callable that gets each visited file and returns True or False to
filter them out:

  get_installed_files(path, filter=callable)

And then provide a "egginfo_files" callable to get what we have with
get_egginfo_files :

  get_installed_files(path, filter=egginfo_files)


>
> Actually, on that note, consider the pkgutil functions:
>
> def get_distribution(name):
>    for d in get_distributions():
>        if d.name == name:
>            return d
>    return None
>
> def get_file_users(path):
>    for d in get_distributions():
>        if d.uses(path):
>            yield d
>
> These don't actually add much to the API. While I can see the
> advantage of having them as convenience methods, it might be worth
> pointing out in the PEP that that's all they are.

Sure,

>
> Similarly, how valuable is Distribution.name, given that it's the same
> as Distribution.metadata.name? I'm probably just going to make it a
> property -

It's just for conveniency, since this metadata field is also the
identifier of the distribution.

>
> @property
> def name(self):
>    return self.metadata.name

I don't think this adds any value, since self.metadata is a read-only instance,
that gets loaded once when the Distribution object is created.