[Python-Dev] .pth files are evil

[P.J. Eby]

At 04:18 PM 5/9/2009 +0200, Martin v. Löwis wrote:
>Zooko O'Whielacronx wrote:
> > .pth files are why I can't easily use GNU stow with easy_install.
> > If installing a Python package involved writing new files into the
> > filesystem, but did not require reading, updating, and re-writing any
> > extant files such as .pth files, then GNU stow would Just Work with
> > easy_install the way it Just Works with most things.
>
>Please understand that this is the fault of easy_install, not of .pth
>files. There is no technical need for easy_install to rewrite .pth
>files on installation. It could just as well have created new .pth
>files, rather than modifying existing ones.
>
>If you always use --single-version-externally-managed with easy_install,
>it will stop editing .pth files on installation.

It's --multi-version (-m) that does 
that.  --single-version-externally-managed is a "setup.py install" option.

Both have the effect of not editing .pth files, but they do so in 
different ways.  The "setup.py install" option causes it to install 
in a distutils-compatible layout, whereas --multi-version simply 
drops .egg files or directories in the target location and leaves it 
to the user (or the generated script wrappers) to add them to sys.path.