Re: [Pythonsiphon-devel] features

[Suchandra T. <s-t...@al...>]

On Fri, Jan 04, 2002 at 10:31:02AM +0100, Thomas Heller wrote:
> 1. I would mostly like some code/explanation/whatever about how
> to submit a package to ciphon. I assume currently you submit
> packages manually?

    I'll add more document this within the package.  Currently
the submission is done manually.  There are two utilities that are 
used to generate the repository.  The createspec.py script (in /utils) asks
the user a few questions and then creates a file with the specification
for the package.  The second utility createlist.py takes a directory 
with package specifications and package tar balls and then creates
a packages.xml and a directory for distribution.  The packages.xml is a
compilation of the individual package specifications with package size and
the package's location relative to the base of the distribution directory.
The distribution directory created by the createlist.py contains 16 
subdirectories (0-9, A-F) where packages can be located.  The packages
are placed in the subdirectory that matches the first character of the SHA 
hash of the package's name.
    Right now I have a group of packages and specifications and just run 
the createlist.py whenever I update a package and upload the directory and 
packages.xml file to the tummy server.
    The other file used is the servers.xml but I will manually change this.

> 2. Windows support: I simply replaced most open(fname, "w") calls
> with open(fname, "wb"). Windows always needs the 'b' flag for
> binary files. Since I could not find a suitable tar.exe running on
> windows, I took the first tarfile Python module I could find
> (from Jason Pedrone, http://www.demonseed.net/~jp/code/tarfile.py)
> and used it from ciphon.

    I can add code to ciphon to choose the mode based on the the platform
distutils is running on.  I'll look into adding the tar file support into
ciphon.  Is the module you mentioned a pure python module?

> 3. How does ciphon use rpm's under linux? If I understand correctly,
> you download the .tar.gz package, build an rpm from it, and then
> install it? Maybe I should do something similar under windows (building
> and then starting a bdist_wininst installer).

    Yes, if the user specifies a rpm installation then ciphon builds
using bdist_rpm and then installs the generated rpm.  Doing something 
similar for windows involves changing the configuration handling to support
a windows option for installtype and then adding a check in the Installer
class.  The changes should take about 10-20 lines of code.


> 4. Support for binary packages is essential under Windows, because
> a lot of people have no compiler. Additional catch: Extension modules
> to run under windows must be compiled separately for each Python version!

    That is a bit of a problem, however it shouldn't be to difficult to
handle.  I think there will probably be similar problems with extension
modules under unix platforms.  I'm still trying to figure out a way to
cleanly handle the possible permutations of libraries , platforms, and python
versions.  

> PS: I have some problems reading your mails, Suchandra, because I always
> see them as empty messages with attachments. I'm sure it's my fault because
> I'm using outlook express... Someone has a tip for me?
    
    Probably due too the gpg signatures on my emails.  I'll disable them 
on the list and in messages to you.

-- 
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Suchandra S. Thapa 
s-t...@al...

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