free-cad-development

[Free-cad-development] Installing freecad extensions using python setup-tools

[Csaba N. <nc...@gm...>]

Hi Werner,

This is a continuation of the discussion I started on the general list,
about how to make it easier to install free-cad extensions coming as
external python modules installed via pip or setup-tools.

I cited below the relevant section of my former mail. I actually had a
look at the free-cad code, and it is not that hard to add some new
options to get FreeCADCmd output the relevant path where modules/macros
need to be installed - see attached patch (done against git master
branch head). That can be used by external python packages to add the
macros/modules at installation time.

With that patch applied I can do:

> FreeCADCmd --help
...
Generic options:
  -v [ --version ]      Prints version string
  -h [ --help ]         Prints help message
  -c [ --console ]      Starts in console mode
  --response-file arg   Can be specified with '@name', too
  --dump-config         Dumps configuration
  --get-config arg      Prints the value of the requested configuration
key

> FreeCADCmd --dump-config
[see command output at the mail end]

> FreeCADCmd --get-config UserAppData
/home/csaba/.FreeCAD/

> FreeCADCmd --get-config AppHomePath
/home/csaba/deploy/freecad/

One can use this then to install the macros/modules of an external
module automatically when the python package is installed. The package
post-install hook can query the free-cad executable it finds on the path
where the macro/modules directory lives, and can use it to copy the
needed files there. This is not 100% fool proof, but it will work 99% of
the time.

I would be happy to get any feedback if it would be interesting for the
free-cad project if I create a template python plugin project others can
reuse for their own free-cad extensions, to make extensions as easy to
install as "pip install extension-name" (or run setup.py).

Cheers,
Csaba


On So, 2015-06-14 at 23:35 +0200, Csaba Nagy wrote:
> It's not enough to distribute the macro code, you actually need to make
> sure it is on the python path, and the easiest way to achieve that is to
> package it in an external (to free-cad) module.
> 
> BTW, is there a cross-platform way to find the free-cad macro directory
> at python package installation time ? If the external package could copy
> it's macro/module files at installation time in the right directory,
> that would make distributing free-cad extensions a lot easier !
> 
> What about a simple "freecad-config" utility or so, which can be run to
> figure out where to put the macros/modules ? That could be used in a
> post-installation step when installing with from sources/pip, a la:
> 
> https://github.com/ncsaba/python-brlcad/blob/master/setup.py#L128
> 
> The python-brlcad code is dynamically searching for a BRL-CAD
> installation (which actually has a brlcad-config utility) and wrapping
> it using ctypesgen, but the same infrastructure of post-install hooks
> could be used to put free-cad extensions in the right macro directory,
> in a cross-platform way.


Output of "FreeCADCmd --dump-config" on my box:

AppDataSkipVendor=true
AppHomePath=/home/csaba/deploy/freecad/
BinPath=/home/csaba/deploy/freecad/bin/
BuildRepositoryURL=git://git.code.sf.net/p/free-cad/code master
BuildRevision=5096 (Git)
BuildRevisionBranch=master
BuildRevisionDate=2015/06/13 10:48:21
BuildRevisionHash=d0d98b87751f4e5308916f509b72f14053caa61e
BuildVersionMajor=0
BuildVersionMinor=16
CopyrightInfo=(c) Juergen Riegel, Werner Mayer, Yorik van Havre
2001-2015
  #####                 ####  ###   ####  
  #                    #      # #   #   # 
  #     ##  #### ####  #     #   #  #   # 
  ####  # # #  # #  #  #     #####  #   # 
  #     #   #### ####  #    #     # #   # 
  #     #   #    #     #    #     # #   #  ##  ##  ##
  #     #   #### ####   ### #     # ####   ##  ##  ##


Debug=0
DocPath=/home/csaba/deploy/freecad/doc/
ExeName=FreeCAD
ExeVendor=FreeCAD
ExeVersion=0.16
PythonSearchPath=/usr/lib/python2.7/:/usr/lib/python2.7/plat-i386-linux-gnu:/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-tk:/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-old:/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-dynload
RunMode=Exit
UserAppData=/home/csaba/.FreeCAD/
UserHomePath=/home/csaba

Re: [Free-cad-development] Installing freecad extensions using python setup-tools

[Werner (GMX) <wer...@gm...>]

Hi Csaba,

I see no problem in applying this patch.

Thanks,
Werner


Am 17.06.2015 um 00:05 schrieb Csaba Nagy:
> Hi Werner,
>
> This is a continuation of the discussion I started on the general list,
> about how to make it easier to install free-cad extensions coming as
> external python modules installed via pip or setup-tools.
>
> I cited below the relevant section of my former mail. I actually had a
> look at the free-cad code, and it is not that hard to add some new
> options to get FreeCADCmd output the relevant path where modules/macros
> need to be installed - see attached patch (done against git master
> branch head). That can be used by external python packages to add the
> macros/modules at installation time.
>
> With that patch applied I can do:
>
>> FreeCADCmd --help
> ...
> Generic options:
>    -v [ --version ]      Prints version string
>    -h [ --help ]         Prints help message
>    -c [ --console ]      Starts in console mode
>    --response-file arg   Can be specified with '@name', too
>    --dump-config         Dumps configuration
>    --get-config arg      Prints the value of the requested configuration
> key
>
>> FreeCADCmd --dump-config
> [see command output at the mail end]
>
>> FreeCADCmd --get-config UserAppData
> /home/csaba/.FreeCAD/
>
>> FreeCADCmd --get-config AppHomePath
> /home/csaba/deploy/freecad/
>
> One can use this then to install the macros/modules of an external
> module automatically when the python package is installed. The package
> post-install hook can query the free-cad executable it finds on the path
> where the macro/modules directory lives, and can use it to copy the
> needed files there. This is not 100% fool proof, but it will work 99% of
> the time.
>
> I would be happy to get any feedback if it would be interesting for the
> free-cad project if I create a template python plugin project others can
> reuse for their own free-cad extensions, to make extensions as easy to
> install as "pip install extension-name" (or run setup.py).
>
> Cheers,
> Csaba
>
>
> On So, 2015-06-14 at 23:35 +0200, Csaba Nagy wrote:
>> It's not enough to distribute the macro code, you actually need to make
>> sure it is on the python path, and the easiest way to achieve that is to
>> package it in an external (to free-cad) module.
>>
>> BTW, is there a cross-platform way to find the free-cad macro directory
>> at python package installation time ? If the external package could copy
>> it's macro/module files at installation time in the right directory,
>> that would make distributing free-cad extensions a lot easier !
>>
>> What about a simple "freecad-config" utility or so, which can be run to
>> figure out where to put the macros/modules ? That could be used in a
>> post-installation step when installing with from sources/pip, a la:
>>
>> https://github.com/ncsaba/python-brlcad/blob/master/setup.py#L128
>>
>> The python-brlcad code is dynamically searching for a BRL-CAD
>> installation (which actually has a brlcad-config utility) and wrapping
>> it using ctypesgen, but the same infrastructure of post-install hooks
>> could be used to put free-cad extensions in the right macro directory,
>> in a cross-platform way.
>
> Output of "FreeCADCmd --dump-config" on my box:
>
> AppDataSkipVendor=true
> AppHomePath=/home/csaba/deploy/freecad/
> BinPath=/home/csaba/deploy/freecad/bin/
> BuildRepositoryURL=git://git.code.sf.net/p/free-cad/code master
> BuildRevision=5096 (Git)
> BuildRevisionBranch=master
> BuildRevisionDate=2015/06/13 10:48:21
> BuildRevisionHash=d0d98b87751f4e5308916f509b72f14053caa61e
> BuildVersionMajor=0
> BuildVersionMinor=16
> CopyrightInfo=(c) Juergen Riegel, Werner Mayer, Yorik van Havre
> 2001-2015
>    #####                 ####  ###   ####
>    #                    #      # #   #   #
>    #     ##  #### ####  #     #   #  #   #
>    ####  # # #  # #  #  #     #####  #   #
>    #     #   #### ####  #    #     # #   #
>    #     #   #    #     #    #     # #   #  ##  ##  ##
>    #     #   #### ####   ### #     # ####   ##  ##  ##
>
>
> Debug=0
> DocPath=/home/csaba/deploy/freecad/doc/
> ExeName=FreeCAD
> ExeVendor=FreeCAD
> ExeVersion=0.16
> PythonSearchPath=/usr/lib/python2.7/:/usr/lib/python2.7/plat-i386-linux-gnu:/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-tk:/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-old:/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-dynload
> RunMode=Exit
> UserAppData=/home/csaba/.FreeCAD/
> UserHomePath=/home/csaba
>