Re: question on packaging of python applications
Bastian Kleineidam <calvin@cs.uni-sb.de> writes:
> >I recently created a debian file for my project (see http://subterfugue.org),
> >and discovered just now why including .pyc and .pyo files directly doesn't
> >work optimally.
> Where is the problem? Python bytecode should be platform
> independent! So it is safe to include .pyc and .pyo files. There is no
> need to compile them at configure time.
The problem is that in order to have the compiled versions used, they must be
newer than the corresponding source (.py file). But if you just include them
as files, they'll be unpacked with virtually identical but arbitrarily
differing timestamps. So, for example, foo.pyc might be just slightly older
than foo.py, in which case python will recompile foo.py on each and every load
(since foo.pyc isn't writable by normal users).
As for being platform independent, yes, this is true. I assume the reason for
compiling, though, is to pick up and match the exact version of python that
the user has on their machine (they might even have their own custom
version).
> >Is there any sort of policy for this? Or lacking that, is there a particular
> >package I ought to use as a good model?
> I recommend the Distutils (included in Python 2.0 as a module).
> Then you can use "python setup.py install --root=`pwd`/debian/tmp"
> in your rules file and the .pyc and .pyo files are generated
> automatically.
> Look at my own program at http://linkchecker.sourceforge.net/
Hmm. Well, I was under the impression that distutils didn't support debian.
It doesn't really, but I see what you're doing.
Unfortunately, my project isn't compatible with distutils because distutils
assumes that all modules in the root package will be in the same directory
(which isn't true for my project).
Anyway, it seems like there ought to be a policy about installing or not
installing the compiled files. Right now, to me, it looks like they should be
generated at install time...
--Mike
--
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greatly disturb large organizations. --Charles C. Mann
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