[Python-Dev] Python and the Linux Standard Base (LSB) (original) (raw)

"Martin v. Löwis" martin at v.loewis.de
Sun Dec 3 19:56:34 CET 2006

Armin Rigo schrieb:

Ah, distutils are distributed in the base package now, but not the 'config' subdirectory of a standard library's normal installation, which makes distutils a bit useless.

I should go and file a bug, I guess. The reason why I did not do it so far, is that the fact that no one did tends to show that they really think distributing 'config' is not the "right" thing to do. A reasoning along the lines of: "this subdir contains include files, so it should go in the python-dev package". I'm not too interested in fighting this kind of preconception.

It really depends on what you are trying to do with distutils. If you want to package or install a distutils module, you need much more than distutils: you may also need a compiler, you may need the complete set of Python header files, and you may need header files for the libraries your package depends on.

So if you use distutils to install a package, it's IMO reasonable to require that the -dev package is installed.

People use distutils for other purposes today as well, and these purposes might be supported now.

Regards, Martin

More information about the Python-Dev mailing list