Create a new package in python called pypi

PEP: 373
Title: Create a new package in python called pypi
Author: Tarek Ziadé
Discussions-To: Distutils SIG
Status: Draft
Python-Version: 2.6

Abstract

This PEP describes how the commands that are used to register and upload a package to PyPI can be extracted from distutils and put in a new independant package in Python called pypi, that would also describe the PyPI protocol.

Motivation

distutils is responsible for too many things, and the register and upload commands are completely standalone. In other words they can be extracted from distutils and placed into a new package that would also describe the protocol used by the PyPI server.

Secondly, there are a lot interactions in those two commands. They are interacting at the prompt with the user when the .pypirc file is created, and they implement an authentication mecanism that push the user login and password values into the HTTP request. This is done by reading a clear text password in .pypirc and pushing it into the request. So users have to call a very precise sequence of command in order to upload or even upgrade their packages.

Let's improve all of this by:

improving password handling
improving the authentication process
improving metadata controls
provide a command line utility, independantly from setup.py
clearly describe the PyPI protocol

The last point would let anyone implement this protocol for the client-side or the server-side, by using this package as a base.

improving password handling

improving the authentication process

improving metadata controls

make sure the long_description compiles if it was written in reST
make sure the author_email is the same that the email of the PyPI account in usage

an abstract definition of PyPI server

provide a command line utility, independantly from setup.py

Let's drop the setup.py command line to register and upload a package. The pypi module can handle this as long as the package is pointed. A high-level script can be provided in the Scripts/ folder of Python, and a developer can use it to control, register or upload a package.

Here's a example

    $ cd my.package
    $ pypi check
    Checking metadata...
    Warning : The 'url' metadata is missing
    Warning: The long_description seem to be in reStructuredText, 
    but does not compile

    $ pypi register -r tarek
    Registering the package using "tarek" account in .pypirc
    ...
    Registered !

    $ pypi upload 
    What kind of release do you want to upload ?
    Available releases:
        sdist   Source release
        bdist   Binary release
        ....

    Type the desired released, separated by a space [sdist] : _

The pypi command could also let you browse PyPI, like the Yolk project does (see http://pypi.python.org/pypi/yolk)

Browsing capabilities using PyPI XML-RPC features : XXX

How ?

A first refactoring was made a few months ago to allow users to handle several PyPI logins and servers in .pypirc (http://bugs.python.org/issue1858) and the code responsible for .pypirc managment and for handling the registering and the upload were isolated.

The first action would be to create a new package called pypi and to copy the code from distutils, in order to make it work on its own.

The files to use are:

distutils/config.py : the base class that handles .pypirc
distutils/commands/register.py : the command that registers a package
distutils/commands/upload.py : the command that uploads a package

We can add deprecated flags into distutils, just to warn people to use the new module instead.

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