[Distutils] distlib updated - comments sought

[Vinay Sajip]

Stanley A. Klein <sklein <at> cpcug.org> writes:

> I looked at the documentation and can't completely follow what you are
> doing, although I was told in another email that the issue I raised was
> being addressed in pkg_resources.

The goal of distlib is to provide a library of low-level functions relating
to packaging and distribution of Python software, and it does not contain any
installers (though it will contain low-level code which could be used by an
installer). The distlib code aims to serve as an implementation of the various
packaging PEPs, such that if higher level tools use distlib, they should be
able to both save writing code (and thereby gain time) as well as achieve
better interoperability with other packaging tools.

The goal of distlib is not to be a complete packaging solution (which packaging
tried to be for Python 3.3, but it proved to be too ambitious a goal).

Which issue are you referring to, which you were told was addressed by
pkg_resources? From the section starting "Here is what I need", I couldn't
see how pkg_resources could fulfil those needs by itself.


> Here is what I need:
[snip] 
> I can't completely see how I would do this using what is described in the
> distlib documentation.

What you need is an installer, and distlib doesn't contain functionality to do
installation. I won't rehash the various discussions around the needs of Linux
distro packagers, except to say that the PEPs have taken into account the needs
of distro packagers and the ability to map various parts of a distribution to
various target directories in a distro-specific manner.

Regards,

Vinay Sajip