Make check-outs more like release (Re: [Zope3-dev] Re: Zope 3.0, and why ...

[Jim Fulton]

Tim Peters wrote:
> [Jim Fulton]
> 
>>>>>Yeah but lib/python is from distutils, which we can't change.
> 
> 
> [Phillip J. Eby]
> 
>>>>Are you sure?  I believe that virtually all distutils installation
>>>>directories are individually overrideable.  Heck, you can even send the
>>>>.py and .so/pyd files to separate directories, if you want.  (purelib vs.
>>>>platlib settings)
> 
> 
> [Jim]
> 
>>>Let me put this another way.  lib/python is a pattern followed by distutils.
>>>I see no good reason to be different.
> 
> 
> [Phillip]
> 
>>Okay.  Technically, that's only one of nearly half a dozen distutils
>>installation patterns, but I do see your point.
> 
> 
> I'm sure this is pathetic, but I don't know what "lib/python" means,
> likely because I'm only intimately familiar with current Pythons on
> Windows.  There's no "lib/python" in the standard Windows Python, nor
> does distutils on Windows create any such thing.  In fact, the only
> places I've ever seen a "lib/python/" on Windows are in Zope2
> checkouts and installs.  So I assumed lib/python was a Zope thing.
> 
> On Linux, isn't the default Python library path
> 
>     sys.prefix + '/lib/python' + sys.version[:3]
> 
> ?  If so, then (a) that's platform-dependent; (b) that's not
> "lib/python/" either (it contains the major.minor version number too);
> and, (c) that's a Python thing, not really a distutils thing (i.e.,
> distutils is following Python's conventions there, and they're
> platform-specific despite that the `sys` module docs still only
> mention the Unix scheme).

Good point. The lib/python directory is used by distutils when
you specify a --home option to setup.py.  If you specify --home, then
modules are installed into the lib/python subdirectory of the directory
given by the home directory.

We have this unreslved issue about whether Zope should be installed
into site packages, or into a separate application area.  distutils
has *some* support for a separate application area through --home.
Of course, this isn't exposed to the binary installers.  This adds to
the confusion IMO.

Jim

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