[Numpy-discussion] RPMs out of date, have problems

[gvermeul at labs.polycnrs-gre.fr]

> 
> > I continue to be less than impressed by RPMs. Every time I try one I get
> > version conflicts with other software.
>
Agreed, I always use RPMs because they help me to keep my systems
in a reversible state. BUT, I never install binary RPMs that are
not taylored to the Distro-Version that I am running (Try to install
RH-7.2 packages on a RH-7.0). I may take source RPMs from other
distributions as a starting point for my own tweaks, but I NEVER
install 'foreign' RPMs.


Attached you'll find a replacement for the setup.py script allowing
to build a single binary and source RPM for Numeric + subpackages.

The README.RPM for a normal user would be something like:
(1) unpack python-numeric-XXX.YY.Z.tar.gz
(2) cd python-numeric-XXX.YY.Z
(3) python setup.py bdist_rpm
This will build a binary and source RPM adapted to YOUR system
(even yours, Paul, with your non-standard Python location) in
the subdirectory dist (to be created automatically)
(4) install with rpm -Uvh python-numeric-XXX.YY.Z-1.i?86.rpm
You can always uninstall with rpm -e python-numeric.

IMHO, this is a better way than trying to distibute binary RPMs.


It happens that my favorite distribution is not on JH's list :-(

But also, http://www.mandrakesoft.com/products/81/gaming-edition ,
the favorite toy of 11 years old whizkids, doing pygame-NumPy
programming and who are certainly future students of astronomy.


If you want to test the script:
(1) replace the old setup.py with mine
(2) rename Lib/Numeric.py to Lib/__init__.py (Numeric will become
a real Python package).
(3) python setup.py bdist
(4) and install the RPM

Caveats:
(1) renaming Numeric to python-numeric has as consequence that
the header files go into .../include/python2.1/python-numeric
instead of .../include/python2.1/Numeric. Personally I don't
like it (being author of a package that builds on Numeric).
(I think this can be fixed, if needed).

(2) I tried to acknowledge Paul Dubois' contributions in a
long_description (the subpackages do not build to separate
packages anymore).

(3) The setup.py script shows how to add documentation
to an RPM (requires to work around a bug in distutils).
Personnally, I think that HTML and PDF documentation
should also be added. In the current state of distutils
this requires inclusion of the documentation in the
python-numeric-XXX.YY.Z.tar.gz.


Gerard


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