[Python-Dev] PEP 297: Support for System Upgrades

[M.-A. Lemburg]

Guido van Rossum wrote:
>>>    GvR> Or a micro-release should clear out the system-packages
>>>    GvR> directory.
>>>
>>>The only reason I'd rather not do that is so that if a package still
>>>needs an update for the new Python micro release, a sysadmin could at
>>>least copy the package over from one version to the next.
>>
>>+1
>>
>>Ok, then, let's call the dir "site-upgrades-<pyversion>" with
>><pyversion> being major.minor.patchlevel.
> 
> 
> +1
> 
> 
>>It seems that only site.py needs to be changed. Hmm, but
>>what happens if someone invokes Python with -S (don't load
>>site.py) ?
> 
> 
> They deserve what they get; they'll have to do their own sys.path
> manipulation.

Ok, I've started looking at adding support for this. Here's
a couple of things I found:

* getpath.c:
    Some of the '/' path delimiters are hard coded; shouldn't
    these be replaced with SEP ?

* There's no easy way to find the first item on sys.path which
   starts the default path added by Python at startup time. It seems
   that a suffix search for "python23.zip" gives the best hint.
   The only other possibility I see is writing the support code
   directly into getpath.c.

* site.py contains code which prefixes "site-packages" with both
   sys.prefix and sys.exec_prefix. Is this really used anywhere ?
   (distutils and the old Makefile.pre.in both install to
   sys.prefix per default)

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
CEO eGenix.com Software GmbH
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