[Python-Dev] "Absolute" paths in PEP 376 RECORD files

[P.J. Eby]

At 06:51 PM 7/8/2009 -0700, Sridhar Ratnakumar wrote:
>Is there any reason why RECORD file can't be generated at runtime?

Applications can be relocatable, yet require plugins and libraries to 
be upgraded, installed, uninstalled, etc.

(Also, RECORD is cross-platform to allow cross-platform 
installation/testing of cross-platform packages; that's why I propose 
keeping the prefix information separate.)


>  Also,
>why should the RECORD file be generated at all by bdist* commands?

bdist commands that use "install --root" will get it as a side 
effect, so they don't have to do anything special.  They needn't even 
generate the PREFIXES, if PREFIXES is also generated by "install 
--root", and omits the root from the prefixes written.  In other 
words, most bdist tools wouldn't change.  bdist_wininst and bdist_msi 
might need to regenerate PREFIXES at actual installation time, but 
AFAIK those are the only ones.  (And the spec would allow for the 
possibility that a PREFIXES file can be incorrect.)