[Grok-dev] problem to buildout inside a virtualenv

[Brandon Craig Rhodes]

Michael Haubenwallner <michael at d2m.at> writes:

> When you make the folder of a grok checkout a virtualenv buildout
> breaks with the error...

Does it help (and it might not!) for me to point out that you can just
hide the whole virtualenv inside a subdirectory (or a directory
elsewhere entirely; but then there's the problem of finding both of them
and remembering that they "go together" so it's not a nice alternative).
You could make your virtualenv a directory inside the Grok project named
"virtual" or "v" or ".virtual" or ".v" or something.  Alternatively,
since you're probably building the virtualenv first, you could create
the Grok project one level deep inside the virtualenv; I often use the
simple directory name "g".

But you're entirely correct: trying to have virtualenv and grok use the
same directory is a problem because the directories virtualenv uses
(bin/lib/include?) and the directories of Grok (bin/parts/eggs/etc.) do
overlap.  I'm not sure that moving the binary name is the issue, because
these two different projects could create more and more conflicts in the
future as they both grow, and it would be annoying to keep adjusting
things.  I recommend one of two things:

 - Either Grok starts using "virtualenv" and maybe "pyinstall" to manage
   its *own* space, and we have an official policy of doing whatever
   hijinks we need to keep things like the "bin/python" collission from
   happening, or...

 - Users should put their virtualenv and their grokproject directories
   in different places and not try to make them the same directory.

For some reason I don't like the middle ground of not officially
supporting virtualenv but still moving stuff around to fix it.  But
maybe I'm just grumpy and tired this morning.  What do you other guys
think?  Should our Python binary name be moved so that a grokproject dir
can also function as a virtualenv dir?  Can buildout and virtualenv
share a directory root like that in sanity?

-- 
Brandon Craig Rhodes   brandon at rhodesmill.org   http://rhodesmill.org/brandon