distutils/package installers on windows

[Thomas Heller]

"Bengt Richter" <bokr at oz.net> wrote in message news:a4smoa$h20$0 at 216.39.172.122...
> >The source code IS available:
> >http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/python/distutils/
> >in the misc directory. Guess I'll have to add a note about this
> >to the source... There is a tricky symbolic link somewhere on SF
> >which links parts of the distutils tree into the Python source tree.
>
> That self-update of the bin64 EXEDATA string seems a little tricky too ;-)
> I guess I would rename the old version to a backup name before writing
> the new, not being aware of the larger context. Or should one
> copy it to ../otherdir and run ../otherdir/it that way? Or did I read
> too fast?

CVS gives enough backup for me, and it has worked for me so far.

>
> >
> >> Having some additional hooks created in distutils to execute
> >> post-installation sounds like it could be a useful enhancement.  At
> >> least with that sort of scenario you could write your own shortcut
> >> creating code without modifying the core distutils itself.
> >
> >I'm currently working on an bdist_wininst enhancement which
> >takes an additional command line option (--install-script <script.py>).
> >This script would then be run (with sys.argv set to [script_name, '--installed'])
> >after all the files have been copied, and it would again be run
> >(with sys.argv set to [script_name, '--removed']) just before
> >the deinstaller is about to remove all the files and directories.
> >
> Sounds good. I wonder if something is needed to cater to version upgrading
> and/or multiple version installation. E.g., to give an old version a
> chance to have a script automatically executed '--before_upgrade' and
> '--after_upgrade'? Can the binary installer run something before even
> copying any new files? I.e., the old version interpreter and its
> 'im_about_to_have_a_sibling.py' script? Putting it in the installer
> sequence would protect against user forgetfulness (otherwise s/he could
> obviously do it manually), and an old version could at a minimum output
> some attention-grabbing reminders from the authors of the old version.

Well, I want to keep the C-coded part as simple as possible.
On the other hand, you could play any tricks you want in
the installation script. Detect upgrade yourself!

Thomas