[Distutils] (How) do setuptools/distribute/pip handle circular dependencies?

[Vinay Sajip]

Daniel Holth <dholth <at> gmail.com> writes:

> You would ask the user or prefer the package that is actually named Foo by
> default.

Asking the user could get old fast for the user, depending on the scenario. If
you're going to prefer the package named Foo, there's no point in searching the
index to see who provides Foo - just go straight for Foo. This is the sensible
thing to do, of course - but it makes Provides-Dist indexing a bit pointless.

> Pillow is a great example.

Presumably Pillow manages now without the benefit of Provides-Dist, since no
one has actually implemented Provides-Dist yet.

> Maybe a sat solver is what you're looking for...

Perhaps, but I'm not sure any existing projects are ready to be used, whether
for technical or licensing reasons (e.g. rox is GPL). It seems a bit of a
rabbit-hole at this point.

Regards,

Vinay Sajip