python2.6 related changes

[Marius Gedminas]

On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 05:00:14PM +0100, Matthias Klose wrote:
> python2.6 is now in the archive and is added as a supported python version,
> python2.4 is dropped as a supported python version.

But it will still be installable from universe, right?

> Starting with python2.6, the default installation points to
> /usr/local/lib/pythonX.Y/dist-packages, while files for packages
> included in the distribution are found in
> /usr/lib/pythonX.Y/dist-packages. This is to avoid overwriting files
> installed by local admins/users.  The python packaging helpers are
> modified to do the right thing with files in these locations; for new
> packages please add for distutils based installations (setup.py
> --install) the extra option --install-layout=deb. This option is
> recognized for python2.4 and python2.5 as well, and ignored.

This sounds sane and welcome.

Does upstream Python 2.6 know about --install-layout=deb, or is this
implemented by a Debian/Ubuntu patch to distutils?  I assume the latter,
but would welcome the clarification.

I have a couple of questions about setuptools, which is pretty popular
despite not being mature enough to be included in the standard library.

Will users be able to run

  sudo easy_install packagename

and get that package installed into
/usr/local/lib/pythonX.Y/dist-packages?  Previously the package would be
installed into /usr/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages, possibly overwriting
Debian-packaged files.

Will users be able to run

  sudo apt-get install python-virtualenv
  virtualenv /tmp/sandbox

and be able to use Python packages installed into
/usr/{,local/}lib/pythonX.Y/dist-packages from the interpreter in
/tmp/sandbox/bin/python?  I ask because currently virtualenv creates a
symlink forest in /tmp/sandbox/lib/python2.x/site-packages and probably
needs to be explicitly taught about the new dist-packages directories.

And another question, probably not related directly to the site-packages to
dist-packages switch, but it also concerns setuptools and the default
sys.path: Will users ever be able to run easy_install without sudo and
be able to install additional Python packages somewhere in their $HOME?
I can buy an argument that this last thing should not be made to work,
especially if locally-installed packages override the ones in /usr and
cause compatibility issues for system-installed software that just
happens to be written in Python.

Regards,
Marius Gedminas
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