[tahoe-lafs-trac-stream] [tahoe-lafs] #2063: users expect 'python setup.py install' to install dependencies

[tahoe-lafs]

#2063: users expect 'python setup.py install' to install dependencies
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     Reporter:  sel      |      Owner:  sel
         Type:  defect   |     Status:  new
     Priority:  normal   |  Milestone:  undecided
    Component:           |    Version:  1.10.0
  packaging              |   Keywords:  install fedora linux packaging
   Resolution:           |  setuptools
Launchpad Bug:           |
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Comment (by gdt):

 Replying to [comment:11 sel]:
 > Generally I think the package system just downloads *prebuilt* packages.
 It is okay to have a command line option that must be specified to install
 dependencies, it is also okay to have a list of dependencies that can be
 installed in a separate step.[[BR]]
 > My concern is: once I have created the introducer, I need to create N
 storage nodes, that's why I would like to automate the installation as
 much as possible.

 Sorry, I wasn't clear enough.  There are two parts to packaging systems.
 One is the control files that take the upstream distribution file and
 build a binary package.  The other is how users install binary packages.
 Both of these mechanisms are within the packaging system, and both have to
 manage dependencies by expressing that other packages are required first.

 It seems that in most GNU/Linux systems, users almost never build packages
 from source using the packaging system, but just use binary packages.  In
 pkgsrc, the norm is to build from source but using the packaging system,
 because of the huge number of OS/os-version/CPU tuples.

 I think it's an artifact of tahoe being in python that there is this focus
 on setup scripts automatically fetching and installing dependencies.  In
 general, step one of building something from source is to read the
 dependency list and make sure those are installed.  So I think the focus
 should be on having tahoe available via packaging systems, rather than
 out-of-system dependency management.  (I've done this for pkgsrc, and thus
 am mostly ignoring the setuptools kerfluffle.)

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/ticket/2063#comment:16>
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