OS packages can be linked into a virtualenv using virtualenvwrapper's "add2virtualenv" script, or by simply adding a link to a .pth file in the virtualenv's site-packages directory. The issues brought about by *not* using --no-site-packages are much worse than the overhead of adding the one or two packages you do actually want from the OS site-packages, in my experience.
Also, in terms of recommending people use it, --no-site-packages is the default in virtualenv now. On Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 2:16 PM, Mike Orr <[email protected]> wrote: > On Sun, Apr 15, 2012 at 12:23 PM, Michael Bayer > <[email protected]> wrote: >> also --no-site-packages is the default now and not using it is a little >> crazy... > > It's the standard for Pyramid because chrism has been promoting it, > and I sometimes have to use it because my Pyramid imports won't work > otherwise. But it's sad that it's undermining the ability to use OS > packages for libraries that are stable enough that you're happy with > whichever version the OS package is. (Like Mako, BeautifulSoup, Nose, > etc. I have a list of Python DEB packages that's the baseline for all > my servers and workstations. It includes those libraries but not > Pyramid, Pylons or SQLAlchemy because those have been changing too > rapidly for the OS packages to keep up. > > The biggest problem with not having access to OS packages is that you > have to locally compile C extensions, which sometimes fails. If you're > making a checklist for other developers or sysadmins, you have to list > all the header dependencies they'll have to install, and what to do if > one error or another happens. This can turn a half-page simple > checklist into a two-page complex article, and even then you still get > called in because "it won't install" and the person doesn't understand > why or what to do. > > The other issue is you have to install the same packages into every > virtualenv. If you don't take the time to set up a download cache or > PyPI mirror, it's downloading the same packages repeatedly. > > So I don't see the point in recommending --no-site-packages or > practically forcing people to use it. > > -- > Mike Orr <[email protected]> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "pylons-discuss" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/pylons-discuss?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "pylons-discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/pylons-discuss?hl=en.
