[Python-Dev] what to do if you don't want your module in Debian

[Toshio Kuratomi]

On Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 05:46:55PM -0400, Barry Warsaw wrote:
> On Apr 26, 2010, at 09:39 PM, Tarek Ziadé wrote:
> 
> >You should be permissive on that one. Until we know how to describe resource
> >files properly, __file__ is what developer use when they need their projects
> >to be portable..
> 
> Until then, isn't pkg_resources the best practice for this?  (I'm pretty sure
> we've talked about this before.)
> 
I would have to say no to this.  Best practice from the Linux packager POV
would be something like this

foo/
foo/__init__.py
foo/paths.py::

  # Global paths where resources are installed
  HELPDIR='/usr/share/foo/help'
  TEMPLATEDIR='/usr/share/foo/templates'
  CACHEDIR='/var/cache/foo'
  DBDIR='/var/lib/foo/db'
  PRIVATEMODDIR='/usr/share/foo/foolib'
  PLUGINDIR='/usr/lib/foo/plugins'
  LOCALEDIR='/usr/share/locale'

foo/do_things.py::
  import foo.paths
  import os.path
  # connect to the db
  db = foo_connect(os.path.join(foo.paths.DBDIR, 'foodb.sqlite'))

Using this strategy, you, the developer, can set the default paths to
whatever makes the most sense for your target but the packager can go
through and patch new locations in a single file that are used throughout
your program.

Note that you can use pkg_resources.resource_filename() in the above
scenario for static resources (but not stateful ones like database files,
caches, and the like).  Unfortunately, pkg_resources.resource_stream() can't
be adapted to the same purpose.

A better version of resource_stream() based on the work that Tarek's been
doing in the backend would be possible for making a resource_stream() capable
of handling settable paths as it would pull the pathname determinaiton to
the level behind the resource_stream call.

-Toshio
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