[Distutils] [buildout] branches languishing? (site-packages and distutils scripts)

[Reinout van Rees]

On 25-03-12 19:39, Jim Fulton wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 25, 2012 at 11:31 AM, Reinout van Rees<reinout at vanrees.org>  wrote:
>> Would it be an idea to move zc.buildout out of the zope svn repo into
>> github?
>
> Yes. In fact, I was just looking at that.  Github's review mechanism
> is particularly attractive.

Yep. Comment on entire pull requests, individual commits and individual 
lines. Works well. (Only real github problem I found is lack of 
attachments (=screenshots) in issues, but that's not something that 
ought to bother buildout).

> I spent a few hours yesterday poking at the 2 branch trying to find a
> way to attack simplifying it.  My suspicion is that it would be easier
> to start from 1.4, although that will require redoing the Python 3
> port.<whimper>

Perhaps a different way is quicker/easier?

What I mean, if buildout is a big hairy complex wrapper around 
setuptools, perhaps it is easier to build it upon/around/with something 
else?

We know what buildout does and how it does it, so perhaps it is quicker 
to make it use/wrap distutils2 or virtualenv/pip? Quicker instead of 
trying to simplify the current code as such?

Buildout has some unique niceties like the recipes and a more 
explicit/solid installation experience than you'd get with 
virtualenv/pip. ("pip install something" ends up in your system, even 
when "bin/pip install something" was what you meant).

But... is it technically possible to use/wrap virtualenv/pip and let 
them worry about the upcoming setup.py-to-setup.cfg change, for instance?

> I would love to move to a more team-based approach.  I really don't
> want to be in charge. I certainly don't want to be a blocker. OTOH,
> someone will beed to protect simplicity, if we ever achieve it.

Well, you're the zope pope, so what about "buildout bishop"? :-)

> Here's a possible plan:
>
> - Create a github repo from svn.
>
>    Not sure the best apprach to this.  I was thinking of using svn2git
>    to copy the zc.buildout svn project.
>
>    Someone with git foo could help with this, although this wants to be
>    soon. (Like nowish :)

svn2git works fine. See
http://reinout.vanrees.org/weblog/2011/10/11/moving-svn-to-github.html
for some tips and common errors.

There are two organizational things that needs to be done:

- We need a mapping from zope svn usernames to email addresses (at least 
for buildout committers). Otherwise all the commits aren't credited 
(which would be a shame) as github identifies commits by email address.

- Where to put it on github? Is there a zope or zope corp or Jim account 
that's the best place to put it?


> - Create a new branch from 1.4.4.
>
>    (Don't know the proper git terminilogy for this, as I don't know git
>    yet. :)

Budget some time for a week of screaming, after that git works fine.

> - Remove setuptools support (just use distribute).

Or distutils2? Or perhaps even pip? I don't know myself.

> Then:
>
> - Merge reinout-scripts :)

With some luck, after using distribute or whatever, the branch won't be 
needed anymore :-)


(Regarding helping: I'll definitively monitor this mailinglist more 
actively and jump in when possible. I'm however writing a Django book at 
the moment, so I *do* have time constraints. Note that I've already put 
a buildout chapter in my table of contents :-) )


Reinout

-- 
Reinout van Rees                    http://reinout.vanrees.org/
reinout at vanrees.org             http://www.nelen-schuurmans.nl/
"If you're not sure what to do, make something. -- Paul Graham"