"Guido van Rossum" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > In private email, Phillip Eby suggested to add these things to the > 2.5. standard library: > > bdist_deb, bdist_msi, and friends > > He explained them as follows: > > """ > bdist_deb makes .deb files (packages for Debian-based Linux distros, like > Ubuntu). bdist_msi makes .msi installers for Windows (it's by Martin v. > Loewis). Marc Lemburg proposed on the distutils-sig that these and > various > other implemented bdist_* formats (other than bdist_egg) be included in > the > next Python release, and there was no opposition there that I recall. > """ >
I don't like the idea of bdist_deb very much. The idea behind the debian packaging system is that unlike with RPM and Windows, package management should be clean. Windows and RPM are known for major dependency problems, letting packages damage each other, having packages that do not uninstall cleanly (i.e. packages that leave junk all over the place) and generally messing the sytem up quite baddly over time, so that the OS is usually removed and re-installed periodically.) The Debian style system attempts to overcome these deficiencies, and generally does a decent job with it. The problem is that this can really only work if packages are well maintained, and adhere to a set of policies that help to further mitigate these problems. Even with all of that, packages from one debian based distribution may well cause problems with a different one. For that reason it is quite rare to see .debs distributed by parties other than those directly involved with a Debian-based distribution, and even then they are normally targeted specifically at one distibution. Making it easy to generate .debs of python modules will likely result in a noticable increase in the number of .debs that do not target a specific distribution and/or do not follow the policies of that distribution. So basically what I am saying is that such a system has a pretty good chance of resulting in debs that mess-up users systems, and that is not good. I'm not saying don't do it, but if it would be included in the standard library, procede with caution! _______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list Python-Dev@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com