On Sat, Feb 16, 2013 at 10:57 PM, Eric V. Smith <e...@trueblade.com> wrote: > On 2/16/2013 7:40 AM, Vinay Sajip wrote: >> With my suggestion about keeping a list of shared locations around, then >> namespace package directories could be kept in such a list. When >> uninstalling, >> all the subpackages added in the particular distribution being uninstalled >> would >> be removed, but the namespace package directory itself wouldn't be, as a >> shared >> location. > > I don't think the installers know which directories are namespace > package directories.
If you limit it to PEP 420 namespaces, then package directories without an __init__.py file are namespace packages. (I expect in the long run they will actually become more common than the self-contained package directory case). However, that particular objection goes away if you silently leave directories containing unregistered files (other than __pycache__) alone on uninstall. With that limitation, Vinay's original idea should work pretty well. If a package leaves unregistered files around without mentioning them in RECORD, that would then typically either be a bug in the package rather than the uninstall tools or the fault of a user leaving an editor backup file lying around by editing installed files. A "clean" command could then just scan the *standard* sysconfig directories looking for unregistered files, and give people the option of deleting them. The shared directories + unregistered files problem is a tricky one, and even OS installers don't handle it very well. However, Vinay's idea would be a solid improvement on the status quo, even without trying to solve that particular detail. Cheers, Nick. -- Nick Coghlan | ncogh...@gmail.com | Brisbane, Australia _______________________________________________ Distutils-SIG maillist - Distutils-SIG@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/distutils-sig
