[Python-Dev] splitting out bdist_*

[David Cournapeau]

2009/3/29 Stephen J. Turnbull <stephen at xemacs.org>:

> I really don't see how that kind of thing can be easily supported by a
> Python module maintainer, unless they're also the downstream packager.

Almost none. But in my understanding, that's not what most linux
packagers vendors ask about - they will handle the dependencies
themselves anyway, because naming conventions and the like are
different.

What is a pain right now with distutils for packagers is:
 - how to control which files are installed where
 - how to control the build (compilation flags, etc...).

Packagers generally "like" autotools packages because they can be
customized along each distribution convention. Autotools do not really
handle dependencies either, but they can be customized for vastly
different kind of deployement (one dir for everything ala gobolinux,
along the FHS for most major distributions, etc...) - and the upstream
developer doesn't need to care much about it.

cheers,

David