[Python-ideas] Python Environment Initialization Scripts

[James William Pye]

On Jul 28, 2012, at 5:56 PM, Eric Snow <ericsnowcurrently at gmail.com> wrote:
> No need to modify site.py.  Either create a sitecustomize.py in your
> site-packages.

I had recently forgotten about that. Thanks. =)

However, from the documentation:

 "After these path manipulations, an attempt is made to import a module named site customize,"
 "which can perform arbitrary site-specific customizations. It is typically created by a system
 "administrator in the site-packages directory."

The "It is typically created by a system administrator" part is what worries me about using sitecustomize.py.

In order for this to be automatic, the package containing the meta_path hook would have to install/setup sitecustomize.py upon
`pip install metapathawesomeness` which may already be in use by the system administrator.
That is, based on the above documentation, it doesn't seem appropriate for a package to presume that it can use sitecustomize.py in such a way.

> As to metapath hooks, one alternative is to make a helper function
> that puts the hooks in place (or otherwise manages your hooks).  Then
> you can call that API in each script that needs those hooks.

Yeah, I referred to that in my list of alternatives.
My gripe with it is the duplication across the set of dependent scripts/packages.

However, it would seem to be the most appropriate solution ATM. =\