Python25.zip

["Martin v. Löwis"]

Colin J. Williams schrieb:
> The role of Python25.zip is not clear.  Is it required in the path just
> to enable the import X.zip capability?

To rephrase Georg's explanation: it allows Python distributors (e.g.
Linux distributors, or ActiveState) to put all of the Python library
(including site.py) into a single zip file, instead of requiring a
Lib directory with many files in it. E.g. on Windows, a complete
Python installation could consist of three files: python.exe,
python25.dll, and python25.zip.

To make that possible, you can't tell people that they have to edit
site.py to put a zip file on sys.path, instead, the distributed
interpreter must already look for a file even though this file
will usually not be present.

Regards,
Martin