Rationale

It is not possible to retrieve the installation paths of data, or other, files for all installation schemes supported by distutils right now. I propose the inclusion of a PREFIX file within the .egg-info directory that holds information on all prefixes set at installation time and a suitable API within pkgutil.

Proposal

PREFIX

The RECORD file is a CSV file, composed of records, one line per prefix. The csv module is used to read the file, with these options:

Each record is composed of two elements:

Identifiers

The list of standard identifiers comprises:

Example

Standard scheme installation on posix:

base,/usr
platbase,/usr
purelib,$base/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages
platlib,$platbase/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages
scripts,$base/bin
data,$base/share

User scheme installation on posix:

base,/home/sirrobin/.local
platbase,/home/sirrobin/.local
purelib,$base/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages
platlib,$platbase/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages
scripts,$base/bin
data,share

Custom installation scheme:

base,/home/sirrobin/.local
platbase,/home/sirrobin/.local
purelib,$base/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages
platlib,$platbase/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages
scripts,/usr/local/bin
data,/usr/local/share/

Default values

Tables summarising the default values on different operating systems:

posix

Prefix identifier

Default value: Standard scheme

Default value: User scheme

Environment variable

Command line option

$base

sys.prefix

~/.local

$PYDIST_BASE

--prefix

$platbase

sys.exec_prefix

~/.local

$PYDIST_PLATBASE

--exec-prefix

$purelib

$base/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages

$base/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages

$PYDIST_PURELIB

--install-purelib

$platlib

$platbase/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages

$platbase/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages

$PYDIST_PLATLIB

--install-platlib

$scripts

$base/bin

$base/bin

$PYDIST_SCRIPTS

--install-scripts

$data

$base/share

$base/share

$PYDIST_DATA

--install-data

nt

Prefix identifier

Default value: Standard scheme

Default value: User scheme

Environment variable

Command line option

$base

sys.prefix

os.environ.get('%APPDATA%')

$PYDIST_BASE

--prefix

$platbase

sys.exec_prefix

os.environ.get('%APPDATA%')

$PYDIST_PLATBASE

--exec-prefix

$purelib

$base/Python

$base/Python/PythonXY/site-packages

$PYDIST_PURELIB

--install-purelib

$platlib

$platbase/Python

$platbase/Python/PythonXY/site-packages

$PYDIST_PLATLIB

--install-platlib

$scripts

$base/Scripts

$base/Python/Scripts

$PYDIST_SCRIPTS

--install-scripts

$data

$base/Data

$base/Python/Python26

$PYDIST_DATA

--install-data

mac

os2

ce

java

riscos

API

The Distribution class will get a new attribute prefixes which holds a dictionary mapping prefix identifiers to their absolute paths.

Usage example:

>>> foo_dist = pkgutil.get_distribution('foo')
>>> foo_dist.prefixes['$base']
'/usr'
>>> foo_dist.prefixes['$data']
'/usr/share'
>>> ni_wish = open(os.path.join(foo_dist.prefixes.get('$data'), 'foo', 'shrubbery.jpg'))
>>> unladen = open(os.path.join(foo_dist.prefixes['$data'], 'foo', 'european.swallow'))

Distutils/DiscussionOverview/FilePrefixes (last edited 2009-11-24 11:28:40 by p5B127112)

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