[Python-Dev] Python and the Linux Standard Base (LSB)

[Andrew Bennetts]

On Fri, Dec 01, 2006 at 12:42:42AM +0100, Jan Claeys wrote:
> Op donderdag 30-11-2006 om 21:48 uur [tijdzone +0000], schreef Steve
> Holden:
> > I think the point is that some distros (Debian is the one that springs 
> > to mind most readily, but I'm not a distro archivist) require a separate 
> > install for distutils even though it's been a part of the standard 
> > *Python* distro since 2.3 (2.2?)
> > 
> > So, it isn't that you can't get distutils, it's that you have to take an 
> > extra step over and above installing Python. 
> 
> No, it just means that several parts of the python.org source package
> are spread over several binary packages, just like happens with hundreds
> or thousands of other packages, and any Debian (or Ubuntu or other
> distro doing this) administrator worth his or her money should be aware
> of that, and be able to find those packages.

In both the current Debian and Ubuntu releases, the "python2.4" binary package
includes distutils.  See for yourself at
http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_contents.pl?searchmode=filelist&word=python2.4&version=stable&arch=i386&page=1&number=all
if you like.

So I'm not sure what the fuss is about.

> Maybe python.org can include several logical "divisions" in the
> python.org distribution and make it easy for OS distro packagers to make
> separate packages if they want to, as most of them are quite happy to
> have less work to do, provided the upstream "divisions" do more or less
> what they want. ;-)   (Oh, and such a division should IMHO also include
> a "minimal python" for embedded/low-resource hardware use, where things
> like distutils, GUI toolkits, a colelction of 20 XML libraries and
> documentation are most likely not needed.)

There's already a "python2.4-minimal" package in Debian/Ubuntu that would
probably be a good starting point for an embedded distribution that cares about
space more than providing a complete Python.

-Andrew.