[Zope3-Users] Re: Eggs, workingenv.py, and 'classic' instance homes

[Jeff Shell]

> Jeff Shell wrote:
> > But now I'd like to be able to install that into "classic" zope 3.3
> > instance homes, trying to be as unobtrusive as possible.
>
> How have you installed other packages before? I suspect by just dumping
> their source in INSTANCE/lib/python. Any reason not to continue to do that?

Because I feel like we're falling further and further behind, or at
least trapped in our own little world.

But yes, this is how we did it. I ended up writing most of
rocketbuild/rockout (our Rake-ish tool) because of this. There are a
lot of external tools out there that we still don't use because we
don't have the time to deal with the headache (made minor by
`rockout`, but still present) of dumping sources into lib/python. For
internal stuff, it's not so bad.

The longer we avoid whatever is going on with setuptools and buildout,
the harder it will be to migrate. It's hard enough already.

> > I tried using 'workingenv.py' and it looked like a decent
> > solution...for a moment. However, when I try to install my component
> > it then starts trying to install the dependencies. Even when I specify
> > '--no-deps' to easy_install.
>
> Sounds like a bug in easy_install or workingenv then...
>
> > Since the Zope 3.3 installation satisfies most of my component's
> > dependencies, I don't want it fetching everything else. But I do want
> > it to get those pieces for testing, etc. I've worried about this issue
> > for a while -- how to get setuptools to ignore dependencies that are
> > satisfied by some big installation like Zope 3.3.
> >
> > In my setup.py, should I move all of my 'install_requires' bits that
> > are satisfied by a regular Zope installation into an 'extras_require'?
>
> That seems backward. If you want to install an package into a "classic"
> environment, it doesn't seem that surprising you'll also have to do it
> the "classic" way...

It doesn't seem entirely backward. I mean, it does. But at the same
time... I just don't know how it's all supposed to work. But if we
keep doing things in the 'classic' way without trying to step forward,
then I fear we'll stay this way forever because it's already scary
enough peeking over the hill at how buildout and all of that stuff
works and how different it is from how we've done things. I don't want
the gulf to get bigger, because I think that with our plans for growth
and for a more distributed deployment server setup, 'buildout' will
help tremendously.

I'm just trying for baby steps right now, because it feels like we've
still got a long way to go to get to anything better.

I saw mention of 'workingenv' in your book, so I assumed it was or is
possible to easily have instance homes with locally managed eggs.
Shouldn't it be?

I assume so, so I guess I may have just run into yet another
setuptools bug that I get to hack around. Yay.

-- 
Jeff Shell