[vtk-developers] python install prefix in setup.py
David Gobbi
dgobbi at atamai.com
Wed Feb 8 12:44:26 EST 2006
Prabhu Ramachandran wrote:
>"David" == David Gobbi <dgobbi at atamai.com> writes:
>
> David> The largest class of these users is probably Windows-users
> David> who are taking VTK for a test-drive. They are likely to
> David> have installed Python themselves. For these users,
> David> installing into python's site-packages, as opposed to the
> David> CMAKE_PREFIX, makes a lot of sense.
>
>OK, so under win32 and maybe the Mac we can default to using
>sys.prefix. I'm not convinced about the Unix behavior since I think a
>good package should do what it is told to do. If I set
>prefix=/usr/local I expect that nothing will be added into /usr/
>behind my back.
>
>
I'll only make installing into the Python prefix the default on Win32.
The Mac is more like UNIX.
> David> CMake should show the user very clearly where these python
> David> modules are going to be installed, so that the user
> David> immediately understands that he/she has an option to
> David> install them somewhere else.
>
>OK. Even if it is going to be made clear to the user that cmake will
>install things in sys.prefix, it still causes problems for those who
>need to build VTK in an RPM or deb. I think things should be made as
>easy as possible for these folks. At least the special cases should
>be documented prominently (README.packagers?).
>
>
If the VTK_PYTHON_SETUP_ARGS is clearly shown by CMake (i.e. not
advanced) and described in a readme, that should be enough.
> >> Then users simply do:
> >>
> >> import vtkversion vtkversion.require('5.0')
>[...]
> David> This would work.
>
> David> We have to move forward here. I have a proposal:
>
> David> 1) Make VTK_PYTHON_SETUP_ARGS so that it is not advanced.
> David> This will make it obvious to the user that they have an
> David> option about where the python modules are installed. The
> David> "Help" tag should indicate that /usr/local and /usr are
> David> other possible options. We don't want to be dictators.
>
>OK.
>
> David> 2) adopt your vtkversion strategy
>
> David> The third thing that should be done, eventually, is that
> David> CMake should create a shell script that the user can source
> David> to automatically set the PYTHONPATH variable. This will be
> David> useful particularly for people that just do "make" and not
> David> "make install".
>
>I think this sounds fine. Only thing is I don't have the time for
>this during this semester, so count me out of helping with an
>implementation.
>
>
I can handle most of it myself, so that should not be a problem.
- David
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