[Python-Dev] "Absolute" paths in PEP 376 RECORD files

[Nick Coghlan]

P.J. Eby wrote:
>>  Also,
>> why should the RECORD file be generated at all by bdist* commands?
> 
> bdist commands that use "install --root" will get it as a side effect,
> so they don't have to do anything special.  They needn't even generate
> the PREFIXES, if PREFIXES is also generated by "install --root", and
> omits the root from the prefixes written.  In other words, most bdist
> tools wouldn't change.  bdist_wininst and bdist_msi might need to
> regenerate PREFIXES at actual installation time, but AFAIK those are the
> only ones.  (And the spec would allow for the possibility that a
> PREFIXES file can be incorrect.)

I haven't seen any suggestions for handling non-relative paths that are
cleaner than this. The distutils based list that Tarek posted also gives
a good "starter set" of supported entries in the PREFIXES file:

PURELIB=<path>
PLATLIB=<path>
HEADERS=<path>
SCRIPTS=<path>
DATA=<path>

The question then would be whether relative paths should be handled
directly in the RECORD file (as in the current PEP) or by writing a "."
into PREFIXES to indicate relative paths.

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia
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