Re: [Pythonsiphon-devel] features

[Thomas H. <tho...@io...>]

From: "Suchandra Thapa" <s-t...@al...>
> 
> > 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?

Yes, pure python. Here's the changed code (Install.__unpack):

    def __unpack(self):
        """Unpack a package so that it can be built and installed"""
        from tarfile import TarFile
        tf = TarFile(self.__fileName)
        tf.untar('.')
        return

> 
> > 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.
Knowing nearly nothing about rpm, what do you gain by this? Uninstallation
support?

>   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.

Could installtype simply be 'source' or 'setup' to install by setup.py,
and 'native' or 'system' to use bdist_wininst, rpm, or whatever
is the preferred method for the system?

BTW: How is uninstallation handled? The bdist_wininst installer includes an
uninstaller, but this one of course does not remove the packes from
~/.ciphon/installed.xml...

> > 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.
Great! It did work in this case.

Thomas