[Zope-dev] breaking apart INSTANCE_HOME.

[Fred L. Drake, Jr.]

Chris McDonough writes:
 > I propose that we add two more options to the config file:
 > 
 > import-directory
 > extensions-directory

I'd like to suggest that we call these "imports" and "extensions", to
be parallel with the "products" multikey.

For products, we use the specified directories to add to the Products
package, but that makes sense given that the base Products package is
a required component.

For imports and extensions, we should consider using the specified
directories *instead* of the default.  This is easy enough; if the
directories are given as relative directories, they should be resolved
relative to config.instancehome; the schema can then include the
defaults and very little new code will be needed.

 > I'm sure that utilizing these options in the config file will break
 > things that rely on having a monolithic INSTANCE_HOME such as products
 > that attempt to do something like "import_dir =
 > os.path.join(INSTANCE_HOME, 'import').

Any product that does that will prove fragile eventually.  We just
need to make sure the core doesn't do anything like that.  ;-)

 > So I propose that the stock Zope instance home install continue to
 > follow the old pattern (where everything is installed into a single
 > instance home directory), but we provide the advanced config file
 > options for roll-your-own packagers and advanced users.

This sounds like a really good plan to me!


  -Fred

-- 
Fred L. Drake, Jr.  <fred at zope.com>
PythonLabs at Zope Corporation