[Python-Dev] magic in setuptools (Was: setuptools in the stdlib) (original) (raw)

Greg Ewing greg.ewing at canterbury.ac.nz
Fri Apr 21 12:21:55 CEST 2006

Martin v. Löwis wrote:

I can readily believe that package authors indeed see this as a simplification, but I also see an increased burden on system admins in return.

There are two conflicting desires here. Package authors don't want to have to make M different kinds of package for M different systems. System administrators don't want to have to deal with N different kinds of package originating from N different software development environments.

What can be done about this? Maybe some kind of babel server in the middle, which knows how to convert between all the different packaging formats. Authors submit packages in the form which is easiest for them to produce, and users request packages in the form which is easiest for them to install. The server does whatever is necessary to convert between them.

Perhaps something along these lines could be incorporated into the cheeseshop? So you could ask e.g. for your favourite package in .rpm format, and if it only knew how to get it in .egg format it would feed it to a handy bdist-bot for conversion.

-- Greg

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