On 6/25/21 12:45 PM, John Snow wrote:
It's not encouraged, but it's legitimate to want to know how to do.
Signed-off-by: John Snow <js...@redhat.com>
---
python/README.rst | 28 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 28 insertions(+)
Reviewed-by: Wainer dos Santos Moschetta <waine...@redhat.com>
diff --git a/python/README.rst b/python/README.rst
index 107786ffdc..d4502fdb60 100644
--- a/python/README.rst
+++ b/python/README.rst
@@ -37,6 +37,34 @@ See `Installing packages using pip and virtual environments
for more information.
+Using these packages without installing them
+--------------------------------------------
+
+These packages may be used without installing them first, by using one
+of two tricks:
+
+1. Set your PYTHONPATH environment variable to include this source
+ directory, e.g. ``~/src/qemu/python``. See
+ https://docs.python.org/3/using/cmdline.html#envvar-PYTHONPATH
+
+2. Inside a Python script, use ``sys.path`` to forcibly include a search
+ path prior to importing the ``qemu`` namespace. See
+ https://docs.python.org/3/library/sys.html#sys.path
+
+A strong downside to both approaches is that they generally interfere
+with static analysis tools being able to locate and analyze the code
+being imported.
+
+Package installation also normally provides executable console scripts,
+so that tools like ``qmp-shell`` are always available via $PATH. To
+invoke them without installation, you can invoke e.g.:
+
+``> PYTHONPATH=~/src/qemu/python python3 -m qemu.qmp.qmp_shell``
+
+The mappings between console script name and python module path can be
+found in ``setup.cfg``.
+
+
Files in this directory
-----------------------
