[Python-Dev] setuptools in the stdlib ( r45510 - python/trunk/Lib/pkgutil.py python/trunk/Lib/pydoc.py) (original) (raw)

Fredrik Lundh fredrik at pythonware.com
Wed Apr 19 23:36:11 CEST 2006

Phillip J. Eby wrote:

>a technical document that, in full detail, describes the mechanisms used by >setuptools, including what files it creates, what the files contain, how >they are used during import, how non-setuptools code can manipulate (or at > least inpect) the data, etc, setuptools should not go into 2.5.

And that is a mostly-specific, very fair, and completely reasonable objection. And I think a significant portion of it is answered by the existing documentation, at least with respect to the runtime. The pkgresources API module includes all of the discovery, dependency resolution and introspection other facilities used by setuptools, and it does not depend on the rest of setuptools, which is directed primarily at building and installing eggs. A number of users have written simple Python scripts using the documented API in order to list installed packages and that sort of thing. The current API reference documentation is available at http://peak.telecommunity.com/DevCenter/PkgResources .)

What I want is a PEP that explains the things that are manipulated by this API. What things are stored where, what do they contain, and how are they are used by the various tools ?

The API in itself isn't very interesting; I'm interested in the underlying design.

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