At 11:25 AM 1/27/2006 -0500, Stefan Seefeld wrote: >Phillip J. Eby wrote: > > >> Unfortunately I don't think I can change the directory layout to > >> relocate the data files into a subdirectory of my toplevel python > >> package. > > > > > > Why not? > >because my python modules are part of a multi-language package >(to be more specific: a framework with multiple language bindings), >so a number of conventions are to be respected (such as >http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/fhs/).
"""If an application uses a subdirectory, all architecture-dependent data exclusively used by the application should be placed within that subdirectory. For example, the perl5 subdirectory for Perl 5 modules and libraries.""" Sounds to me like there are only two ways to interpret this statement. One leads to the conclusion that Perl or Python modules must *not* live under /usr/lib (since they are *not* architecture-dependent), or that it's fine to place data files alongside modules. Since the former conclusion is not the practice, I interpret this to mean that the latter applies. A simple thought experiment should suffice to make the point more clear: if you took the data files and embedded them inside a Python module using a string and a base64 encoding, would the module then have to live in /usr/share? What if a C library includes static data in the library? Does that make it belong in /usr/share? What about Java jars or libraries containing resource files? Do those go in /usr/share? Since Python modules are often installed with source code, doesn't that mean they belong in /usr/src, with only the compiled libraries in /usr/lib? As far as I can tell, the FHS is already interpreted quite flexibly enough to easily allow for embedded data files in Python packages. Anybody who uses that as an excuse to denigrate your package either lacks imagination or is using the FHS as a political tool rather than a technical guideline. :) _______________________________________________ Distutils-SIG maillist - [email protected] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/distutils-sig
