[Python-Dev] Modules that run other scripts

[Nick Coghlan]

I'm in the process of adding a "run_path" function to the runpy module
that allows Python code to execute scripts using the same rules as the
CPython command line (i.e. accepting both source and compiled Python
files in addition to zipfiles, directories and other valid sys.path
entries containing a __main__.py file).

After that I was considering looking at the standard library to see
which modules can be used to execute other scripts (e.g. pdb, profile)
and determine what would be involved in updating them to support the
same flexibility as the main command line (possibly including adding
their own "-m" option to run modules by name rather than file path
location).

For that second part:
1. Is it even worth doing at this stage? I'm not sure to what degree the
new command line flexibility has even been adopted by third party
application packagers, so I have no idea how large the pool of potential
users might be. Should I instead wait until we start seeing complaints
that these tools can't be used with script references that the main
command line will handle quite happily?

2. Aside from runpy itself, pdb and profile are the only examples that
spring to mind when I try to think of standard library modules that
execute other Python scripts. Are there any others that I'm missing?
(Even if we decide not to do anything at this stage, collating such a
list may still be handy for future reference)

Regards,
Nick.

P.S. pdb in particular may be messy to update, since the interaction
between the way it provides exception post-mortem debugging support and
the way the runpy module tries to avoid mutating the application's own
__main__ module will likely require careful handling.

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