[Python-Dev] PEP 382: little help for stupid people?

[Paul Moore]

2009/5/9 Chris Withers <chris at simplistix.co.uk>:
> Martin v. Löwis wrote:
>>> I thought .pth files just had python in them?
>>
>> Not at all - they never did. They have paths in them.
>
> I've certainly seen them with python in, and that's what I hate about
> them...

AIUI, there was a small special case that lines starting with "import"
are executed (see the source of site.py for details). This exception
has been exploited (some would say "abused", but I'm trying to be
unbiased here) by setuptools, at least, to do path manipulations and
such.

PEP 382 does not provide the import exception: "Unlike .pth files on
the top level, lines starting with "import" are not supported in
per-package .pth files". It's not clear to me what impact this would
have on setuptools (probably none, as top-level .pth files aren't
changed).

Paul.