[Distutils] PEP for specifying build dependencies

[Nick Coghlan]

On 12 May 2016 at 00:26, Antoine Pitrou <solipsis at pitrou.net> wrote:
> On Thu, 12 May 2016 00:20:32 +1000
> Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> When I say "build system configuration" in the context of
>> distutils/setuptools, I mean things like:
>>
>> * MANIFEST.in
>> * non-dependency related setup() arguments (packages, package_dir,
>> py_modules, ext_modules, namespace_packages, entry_points,
>> include_package_data, zip_safe, etc)
>> * the Extension class and its parameters:
>> https://docs.python.org/2/distutils/setupscript.html#describing-extension-modules
>>
>> Those are the settings that actually tell the build system what to
>> build and (in some cases) how to build it.
>
> That's confusing :-) You should really call it "build configuration".

Gah, that's what I *meant* to write. Unfortunately, I put the extra
word in there without noticing, rendering the entire message
thoroughly confusing.

To be clear:

* "build system configuration": telling other tools what's needed to
invoke the build system
* "build configuration": actually telling the build system what it needs to do

The build system config is the part the PEP proposes to start moving
to pyproject.toml (with support for non-setup.py based invocation
deferred to a later PEP).

The build config itself will remain in tool dependent locations (e.g.
setup.py, setup.cfg, flit.ini). If any build config were to move to
pyproject.toml, it would be via the [tool.<name>] mechanism, and be a
decision for the developers of the build tool concerned, rather than
needing to be the topic of a PEP.

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia