Eggs, VirtualEnv, and Apt - best practices?

[Diez B. Roggisch]

Scott Sharkey schrieb:
> Hello all,
> 
> Our development group at work seems to be heading towards adopting 
> python as one of our standard "systems languages" for internal 
> application development (yeah!).  One of the issues that's come up is 
> the problem with apt (deb packages) vs eggs, vs virtual environments.
> We're probably gonna end up using Pylons or TurboGears for web-based
> apps, and I've recommended virtualenv, but one of the other developers 
> has had some "inconsistencies" when mixing systems with python installed 
> from apt (all our servers are debian or ubuntu based) vs when installed 
> under virtualenv.

> I have basically recommended that we only install the python base (core 
> language) from apt, and that everything else should be installed into 
> virtual environments. But I wanted to check to see how other enterprises
> are handling this issue?  Are you building python from scratch, or using 
> specific sets of .deb packages, or some other process.
> 
> Any insight into the best way to have a consistent, repeatable, 
> controllable development and production environment would be much 
> appreciated.

This is the exact way we are deploying our software. You can even use 
the virtualenv --no-site-packages option to completely isolate the VE 
from the underlying system site-packages.

I would recommend that all you install into the system python is 
virtualenv, and maybe some uncritical C-modules such as psycopg2.

Currently there is much going on regarding setuptools. A fork, 
"Distribute" has been announced, and "pyinstall" by Ian Bicking, an 
easy_install replacement that deals with some of it's ancestors 
shortcomings.

Then people (shameless plug warning: including me) are working on 
"eggbasket", a PYPI-clone that allows to have a local repository of eggs 
so that you don't fall prey to old versions not longer available on PYPI.

Eggbasket will feature "easterbunny", a tool to publish a virtualenv as 
whole to the eggbasket and also keep track of the precise version set 
uploaded. Through a specific url on eggbasket you can then limit the 
contents of eggbasket to that exact version set - which helps dealing 
with subtle (or not so subtle) version conflicts.

I personally can say that I'm really thrilled by the prospects of all 
these developments. And as much bad rap as setuptools had here and 
elsewhere, sometimes rightfully so - it certainly does a lot of stuff 
right, and pushing the whole stack of tools to manage software 
dependencies in Python to the next level is of great value.

Diez