[Distutils] Potential issue with multiple easy_install instances and single easy_install.pth

[Garrett Cooper (garrcoop)]

Hi Python folks,
	As part of a build system I work with, my group installs
multiple Python packages via source using easy_install. One such issue
I've seen before in the past is that when using multiple easy_install
instances (via multiple make jobs), the last instance that opened up
easy_install.pth records its changes; the file should contain entries
for all packages installed by easy_install.
	I was wondering if this was a known issue / caveat and/or
whether or not anyone was possibly working on rectifying the problem.
One workaround to this issue I could think of is possibly using a single
.pth file per egg, as Python by default opens up all .pth files at
startup in site-packages using a *.pth glob, but the only issue is open
file descriptors and wasted cluster space with a number of small
files... Either that or easy_install could (more properly) use a
database backend for storing all package registries, which would not
only simplify adding the .egg entries, but also simplify deleting .egg
entries as well (a feature missing from easy_install and I believe from
setup.py as well).
Thanks!
-Garrett