[Python-Dev] Dropping __init__.py requirement for subpackages

[Gustavo Carneiro]

On 4/27/06, Thomas Wouters <thomas at python.org> wrote:
>
>
> On 4/27/06, Gustavo Carneiro <gjcarneiro at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On 4/27/06, Phillip J. Eby < pje at telecommunity.com> wrote:
> >
> > > At 03:48 PM 4/27/2006 +0200, Bernhard Herzog wrote:
> > >"Gustavo Carneiro" <gjcarneiro at gmail.com > writes:
> > >
> > > >   Now the problem.  Suppose you have the source package
> > python-foo-bar,
> > > > which installs $pythondir/foo/__init__.py and
> > $pythondir/foo/bar.py.  This
> > > > would make a module called "foo.bar" available.  Likewise, you can
> > have the
> > > > source package python-foo-zbr, which installs
> > > $pythondir/foo/__init__.py and
> > > > $pythondir/foo/zbr.py.  This would make a module called "foo.zbr"
> > > available.
> > > >
> > > >   The two packages above install the file
> > $pythondir/foo/__init__.py.  If
> > > > one of them adds some content to __init__.py, the other one will
> > overwrite
> > > > it.  Packaging these two packages for e.g. debian would be extremely
> > > > difficult, because no two .deb packages are allowed to intall the
> > same file.
> > >
> > >Yet another solution would be to put foo/__init__.py into a third
> > >package, e.g. python-foo, on which both python-foo-bar and
> > >python-foo-zbr depend.
> >
>
>   You can't be serious.  One package just to install a __init__.py file?
>
> Sure. Have you counted the number of 'empty' packages in Debian lately?
>

  Sure.  That is already a problem; let's not make it a worse problem for no
good reason; I haven't heard a good reason to keep the __init__.py file
besides backward compatibility concerns.


Besides, Guido's original proposal is not a fix for your problem, either; he
> only proposes to change the requirement for *sub*packages.
>

  It *is* a solution for my problem.  I don't need the __init__.py file for
anything, since I don't need anything defined in the the 'foo' namespace,
only the subpackages foo.bar and foo.zbr.
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