Path: csiph.com!news.freedyn.net!aioe.org!bofh.it!news.nic.it!robomod From: Barry Warsaw Newsgroups: linux.debian.maint.python Subject: Re: Python Policy: Things to consider for Stretch Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2016 01:50:01 +0100 Message-ID: References: X-Original-To: debian-python@lists.debian.org X-Mailbox-Line: From debian-python-request@lists.debian.org Tue Feb 16 00:42:56 2016 Old-Return-Path: X-Amavis-Spam-Status: No, score=-6.9 tagged_above=-10000 required=5.3 tests=[BAYES_00=-2, FOURLA=0.1, LDO_WHITELIST=-5] autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no X-Policyd-Weight: using cached result; rate: -5 Organization: The Organization of Unorganized Woozalists X-Mailer: Claws Mail 3.13.1 (GTK+ 2.24.29; x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailing-List: archive/latest/13534 List-ID: List-URL: List-Archive: https://lists.debian.org/msgid-search/20160215194238.4e788bc1@subdivisions.wooz.org Approved: robomod@news.nic.it Lines: 26 Sender: robomod@news.nic.it X-Original-Date: Mon, 15 Feb 2016 19:42:38 -0500 X-Original-Message-ID: <20160215194238.4e788bc1@subdivisions.wooz.org> X-Original-References: <1705132.RfqMtW1P2v@kitterma-e6430> <20160122175519.5cb7542e@anarchist.wooz.org> Xref: csiph.com linux.debian.maint.python:8209 On Feb 16, 2016, at 11:05 AM, Paul Wise wrote: >Side-note: does anyone know why Python puts packages in "dist-packages", >"site-packages" etc directories instead of just "packages" directories? I don't remember exactly why we called it 'site-packages', but I believe it was an evolution from the earlier ni.py module, which was where dotted module paths first showed up in Python. According to the HISTORY file, site-packages showed up sometime between 1.5a3 and 1.5a4, which IIRC would have been around 2001, so after Pythonlabs split from CNRI. If you want to read a blast from the past, here's Guido's original essay on built-in package support added in Python 1.5, again derived from the optional ni.py in earlier versions. https://www.python.org/doc/essays/packages/ dist-packages was a later Debian compromise so as not to break from-source builds installed in /usr/local with the default `make install` target. I think that was probably around the time I joined Canonical but wasn't working on the Foundations team yet. I do remember Doko and I talking about it, and it seemed like 'dist-' was a good parallel to 'site-' (i.e. a place for the distribution to put things). Cheers, -Barry