setuptools without unexpected downloads

[Diez B. Roggisch]

Ben Finney schrieb:
> Ben Finney <ben at benfinney.id.au> writes:
> 
>> How can I, as the distributor of a package using setuptools, gain
>> the benefits of dependency declaration and checking, without the
>> drawback of unexpected and potentially unwanted download and
>> installation?
> 
> To clarify: I want to retain the "assert the specified dependencies
> are satisfied" behaviour, without the "... and, if not, download and
> install them the Setuptools Way" behaviour.
> 
> Instead, I just want the default "dependencies not satisfied"
> behaviour for my 'setup.py' program to be: complain the dependencies
> aren't met, and refuse to install.

The problem here is that your favorite OS vendor/distributor not 
necessarily offers the required meta-information - so setuptools can't 
check the dependencies.

In my opinion, python is steering here to a direction like Java with 
it's classpath: scripts like workingenv and it's successor (forgot the 
name) provide hand-tailored environments for a specific application.

So maybe you should rather try and bundle your app in a way that it is 
self-contained.

Diez