[Python-Dev] zipimport.c broken with implicit namespace packages

[Phil Thompson]

On 3 Jan 2016, at 5:33 pm, Brett Cannon <brett at python.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> On Sun, 3 Jan 2016 at 02:55 Phil Thompson <phil at riverbankcomputing.com> wrote:
> On 3 Jan 2016, at 3:41 am, Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> wrote:
> >
> > On Sat, Jan 2, 2016 at 3:26 PM, <mike.romberg at comcast.net> wrote:
> >
> > --
> > >>>>> "Brett" == Brett Cannon <brett at python.org> writes:
> >
> >     > I opened
> >     > https://bugs.python.org/issue25711 to specifically try to
> >     > fix this issue once and for all and along the way modernize
> >     > zipimport by rewriting it from scratch to be more
> >     > maintainable
> >
> >   Every time I read about impementing a custom loader:
> >
> > https://docs.python.org/3/library/importlib.html
> >
> >   I've wondered why python does not have some sort of virtual
> > filesystem layer to deal with locating modules/packages/support
> > files.   Virtual file systems seem like a good way to store data on a
> > wide range of storage devices.
> >
> > Yeah, but most devices already implement a *real* filesystem, so the only time the VFS would come in handy would be for zipfiles, where we already have a solution.
> 
> Just to point out that it would be nice to have an easier way to use something other that zipfiles. I have a need to exploit a different solution and have to patch the bootstrap code (because the zipfile support is handled as a special case). BTW the need is to create iOS and Android executables from frozen Python code.
> 
> Not quite sure about how zip files are a special-case beyond just being put in sys.meta_path automatically. You can get the same results with a .pth file or a sitecustomize.py depending on how pervasive your need is. Otherwise feel free to file an issue at bugs.python.org and we can talk over there about what you specifically need and if it's reasonable to try and support. 

I've created http://bugs.python.org/issue26007 and hope it's clear enough what the issue is.

Thanks,
Phil