Making code run in both source tree and installation path

Javier Collado javier.collado at gmail.com
Mon Jun 29 12:20:41 EDT 2009


Hello,

I would like to be able to run the main script in a python project
from both the source tree and the path in which it's installed on
Ubuntu. The script, among other things, imports a package which in
turns makes use of some data files that contains some metadata that is
needed in xml format.

The source tree has an structure such as this one:
setup.py
debian/ (packaging files)
src/ (source code)
src/lib (package files)
src/data (data files)
src/bin (main script)

However, when the project is installed using setup.py install, the
directory structure is approximately this way:
/usr/local/bin (main script)
/usr/local/share/<project_name> (data files)
/usr/local/lib/python2.x/dist-packages/<project_name> (library files)

And when installing the code through a package, the structure is the
same one, but removing "local".

Hence, the data files aren't always in the same relative directories
depending on we're executing code from the source tree or from the
installation. To make it possible to run the code from both places,
I've seen different approaches:
- distutils trick in setup.py to modify the installed script (i.e.
changing a global variable value) so that it has a reference to the
data files location.
- Heuristic in the package code to detect when it's being executed
from the source tree and when it has been the installed
- Just using an environment variable that the user must set according
to his needs

I guess that there are other options, for example, maybe using
buildout. What would you say it's the best/more elegant option to
solve this problem?

Best regards,
   Javier



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