[Python-ideas] including psutil in the standard library?

[Victor Stinner]

2014-09-24 21:21 GMT+02:00 Stefano Borini <stefano.borini at ferrara.linux.it>:
> I am wondering if it would be possible to include psutil
> (https://pypi.python.org/pypi/psutil ) in the standard library, and if not,
> what would be needed.

The problem is that Python only releases a new major version every 18
months (or something like that), so adding a single new function will
take so much time.

Supporting a new platform, architecture, major version of an OS, etc.
may also need to wait a new Python major release.

Operating systems are evolving quite fast. For example, there is the
new architecture AArch64, containers are more and more popular,
systemd can also be used to provide features similar to psutil and it
supports containers (running systemd, it even supports recursive
containers....). Network becomes more virtual with Software Defined
Networks (SDN, NFV, etc.). The Linux kernel is also extended at each
release. Example of "recent" addition: /proc/pid/fdinfo/ directory.
Does psutil provide NUMA information? NUMA also becomes more
information nowadays for performances.

The psutil also still evolves. For example, I see that the version 2.1
released at April, 2014 adds "netstat-like functionalities". The
version 2.0 was only released one month before (March, 2014).

The API of psutil changed a lot between 1.x and 2.0. The version 2.0
was only released a few months ago. Is it enough to consider that the
API is now stable enough (was enough tested)? Giampaolo (author of the
module) doesn't look to be confident in its own API ;-) He wrote "I
still want to work on a couple of new features first (...) and be 100%
sure that I'm happy with the API as it is right now".

Maybe I'm wrong and the psutil is stable and can be "frozen" in the
standard library. Maybe it's possible to extract a subpart of the
psutil to keep the most stable part?

I'm not strongly opposed to the integration of the psutil module into
the stdlib.

Is it hard to install the psutil module today? I see wheel packages
and .exe installers for Windows. They are Linux packages (Debian,
Ubuntu, Fedora, ArchLinux, etc.)

Victor