Subject: [bug#46848] Questions regarding Python packaging

From: Lars-Dominik Braun <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 6 Jun 2021 21:44:33 +0200

Hi Tanguy,

(cross-posting this to the issue itself too)

> Sorry if I'm (very) late, but apprently this hasn't made it to master
> yet, so… What the status? Do you still need a willing-but-maybe-not-qualified
> person to review or discuss your patch?
the patch set works, I can build many Python packages, although some
require changes. Still, multiple things need to be done before merging
is possible imo:

1) Validate the general idea of using pypa-build is viable and
   sustainable in the long run – ideally through review by someone else
   than me. We can’t touch python-build-system every week to solve
   structural issues, so it needs to be bullet-proof.
2) Figure out how to run testing code. Currently python-build-system
   just picks pytest, if available – not sure this is the best option we
   have. How do we deal with other test systems? How do we pass options?
3) Determine the fate of Python 2, which is probably broken through this
   patch set. Shall we remove it entirely? Is it worth to keep support?
4) Iron out minor details like including pip in the python package or
   create a new python-toolchain package? What do we include in that
   meta-package? pip? virtualenv? …?
5) Fix my awkward Scheme code, especially regarding unpacking of the
   built wheels. Should we be using Python’s unzip module or can be
   assumed unzip is available in the build environment? (Should we add
   it?)

I’m by no means a Python packaging expert, so any help would be
appreciated, even if it’s just a question or thumbs-up/thumbs-down on my
ideas.

Cheers,
Lars