On Thu, Sep 27, 2012 at 12:12 PM, Jan Matejek wrote:

Fellow packagers and pythonistas,

i'd like to notify you about a proposed change to the way Python installs its packages, and give you a chance to object before it is put into effect.

This has nothing to do with the "versioned python" proposal.

TL;DR version: Currently, python is configured to install packages into /usr/local/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages, unless you specify "--prefix=/usr". This mimicks autotools behavior, but diverges from upstream. If there are no significant objections, I'm going to restore the default behavior where "/usr" is the default prefix.

Packages installed in /usr/local will still be recognized, it just won't be the default install location anymore.

Jan, I worry about compatibility between what's out there and newly built packages. Is that going to break factory snapshots because they that have the old location vs. new packages having the new location? What about existing deployed releases that want to get a new python module. Will it be compatible? Greg -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-packaging+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-packaging+owner@opensuse.org

On Thu, Sep 27, 2012 at 1:12 PM, Jan Matejek wrote:

+ and conversely, the user has all of her site-local packages in /usr/local, not mingled with "managed" installations (unlike e.g. Perl, Python has no official mechanism for separating "site" packages and "vendor" packages. this provides such distinction)

Debian adds a "dist-packages" in tandem with site-packages, and that's also quite confusing. Maybe you're right, any deviation from upstream will be confusing in this regard, not only maintaining the patches that, as you say, are complicated by the fact that there's quite a great deal of places to patch, but also in the sense that users and modules both get confused by alternate search/install paths. I've certainly had to battle with such confusion in the past. Why do you think the patches aren't upstreamable? -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-packaging+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-packaging+owner@opensuse.org

On Thu, 2012-09-27 at 18:12 +0200, Jan Matejek wrote:

Fellow packagers and pythonistas,

i'd like to notify you about a proposed change to the way Python installs its packages, and give you a chance to object before it is put into effect.

This has nothing to do with the "versioned python" proposal.

TL;DR version: Currently, python is configured to install packages into /usr/local/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages, unless you specify "--prefix=/usr". This mimicks autotools behavior, but diverges from upstream. If there are no significant objections, I'm going to restore the default behavior where "/usr" is the default prefix.

Packages installed in /usr/local will still be recognized, it just won't be the default install location anymore.

Jan, Two ways to look at it: - A user on a standard systems downloads a tarball and does the whole magic... likely with very few knowledge or just following bare documentation => This needs to go to /usr/local (as it's a locally built / locally installed package) - A packaged prepared a spec file with all the fancy stuff => this needs to go to /usr for autotools, this is nicely handled using the %configure macro, which includes --prefix and anything else the packager would need to pass, but, as every packager, is too lazy to type or even remember (me included). I tend to very often make good use of that: build something locally from source, have it install to /usr/local (which I tend to keep clean)... once my tests are completed, I can just wipe /usr/local again, do the right fix in the real packages and live happily ever after... now splitting it off to /usr/local would mean that I have to trace installs and remove them (ok, likely not an issue, as I tend not to do a lot of python stuff :P ) But of course, the argument against it, carrying a patch, is a very compelling one. The right decision? Tough one... The "Upstream" way is usually preferred by me (I also hate to carry patches).. so in this case... I don't know :( Dominique -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-packaging+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-packaging+owner@opensuse.org