[Python-Dev] PEP 376 - Open questions

[Paul Moore]

2009/7/9 Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com>:
> Paul Moore wrote:
>> - some cases are not simple, and it's not clear to me how useful
>> "nearly always accurate" data will be
>
> Since the accuracy can always be checked against the filesystem, I think
> the metadata is useful even if not 100% reliable. Applications that need
> the extra assurance (such as the distutils uninstaller itself) can check
> the filesytem and complain when it differs from what it is claimed in
> the package metadata.

The inaccuracy I was thinking of was that if distribution X's RECORD
doesn't mention file Y, the implication is that X doesn't "own" Y.
There's no way of checking this against the filesystem - RECORD is the
only place that says that X owns Y.

I was thinking in terms of "does anyone else mind if I
delete/overwrite this file?" queries, not uninstallation.

> One thing that did occur to me based on this - do we want the format to
> support designation of files (such as config files) that *shouldn't* be
> uninstalled along with everything else? Or are we happy with not
> mentioning the file in RECORD at all as the means of supporting that use
> case?

No. In my view, the uninstall feature is a relatively minor issue -
people who want uninstall facilities generally use system packages (or
complain that easy_install doesn't support uninstallation :-)). They
aren't using setup.py install. (Of course, my experience is minimal in
this regard, so maybe I'm wrong).

Remember that the PEP says "Distutils will provide a **very basic**
uninstall function" (my emphasis).

Unless I'm misunderstanding, no-one is intending to use the new
distutils uninstall feature in their own package manager
(bdist_wininst, RPM, apt, ...)

Paul.