[Python-Dev] [Catalog-sig] egg_info in PyPI

[Sridhar Ratnakumar]

On 2010-09-18, at 2:29 AM, Thomas Lotze wrote:

> I'd like to expand [tl.eggdeps]
> to analyse dependencies between any packages on PyPI but I can't
> as long as dependency information is not available without actually
> installing things. [...]

On 2010-09-18, at 2:29 AM, Thomas Lotze wrote:

>> I am not even understanding what's the benefit of doing this since an
>> egg_info directory is obtained at *build* time and can differ from a
>> machine to another, so it seems pretty useless for me to publish this.
> 
> We do understand that legacy metadata has its issues, but taken with the
> appropriate amount of salt, it's better than nothing in most cases, enough
> so at least to solve some chicken-and-egg problems.

Just curious: aside from the static metadata issue which you recognize, how would you make tl.eggdeps analyze dependencies between any packages registered on PyPI  when not all of them upload their sdists (hence no egg_info) to PyPI?

Also, if I may ask, what is the intended use for tl.eggdeps? For use in package managers (buildout, pip)? If yes, then ... would providing egg_info in PyPI obviate the need for package managers such as pip to download sources before resolving dependencies (keeping in mind that even packages that do upload their sdists to PyPI sometimes end up not doing the same - perhaps out of forgetfulness - for theirs latest releases)?

-srid