python-peps/pep-0376.txt

PEP: 376
Title: Changing the .egg-info structure
Version: $Revision$
Last-Modified: $Date$
Author: Tarek Ziadé <tarek@ziade.org>
Status: Draft
Type: Standards Track
Content-Type: text/x-rst
Created: 22-Feb-2009
Python-Version: 2.7, 3.2
Post-History:


Abstract
========

This PEP proposes various enhancements for Distutils:

- A new format for the .egg-info structure.
- Some APIs to read the meta-data of a project
- Replace PEP 262
- An uninstall feature

Definitions
===========

A **project** is a Python application composed of one or several files, which can
be Python modules, extensions or data. It is distributed using a `setup.py` script
with Distutils and/or Setuptools. The `setup.py` script indicates where each
elements should be installed.

Once installed, the elements are located in various places in the system, like:

- in Python's site-packages (Python modules, Python modules organized into packages,
  Extensions, etc.)
- in Python's `include` directory.
- in Python's `bin` or `Script` directory.
- etc.

Rationale
=========

There are two problems right now in the way projects are installed in Python:

- There are too many ways to do it.
- There is no API to get the metadata of installed projects.

How projects are installed
--------------------------

Right now, when a project is installed in Python, every elements its contains
is installed in various directories.

The pure Python code for instance is  installed in the `purelib` directory,
which is located in the Python  installation in `lib\python2.6\site-packages`
for example under unix-like systems or Mac OS X, and in `Lib/site-packages`
under Windows. This is done with the Distutils `install` command, which calls
various subcommands.

The `install_egg_info` subcommand is called during this process, in order to
create an `.egg-info` file in the `purelib` directory.

For example, if the `zlib` project (which contains one package) is installed,
two elements will be installed in `site-packages`::

 - zlib
 - zlib-2.5.2-py2.4.egg-info

Where `zlib` is a Python package, and `zlib-2.5.2-py2.4.egg-info` is
a file containing the project metadata as described in PEP 314 [#pep314]_.

This file corresponds to the file called `PKG-INFO`, built by
the `sdist` command.

The problem is that many people use `easy_install` (setuptools [#setuptools]_)
or `pip` [#pip]_ to install their packages, and these third-party tools do not
install packages in the same way that Distutils does:

- `easy_install` creates an `EGG-INFO` directory inside an `.egg` directory,
  and adds a `PKG-INFO` file inside this directory. The `.egg` directory
  contains in that case all the elements of the project that are supposed to
  be installed in `site-packages`, and is placed in the `site-packages`
  directory.

- `pip` creates an `.egg-info` directory inside the `site-packages` directory
  and adds a `PKG-INFO` file inside it. Elements of the project are then
  installed in various places like Distutils does.

They both add other files in the `EGG-INFO` or `.egg-info` directory, and
create or modify `.pth` files.

Uninstall information
---------------------

Distutils doesn't provide any `uninstall` command. If you want to uninstall
a project, you have to be a power user and remove the various elements that
were installed. Then look over the `.pth` file to clean them if necessary.

And the process differs, depending on the tools you have used to install the
project, and if the project's `setup.py` uses Distutils or Setuptools.

Under some circumstances, you might not be able to know for sure that you
have removed everything, or that you didn't break another project by
removing a file that was shared among several projects.

But there's common behavior: when you install a project, files are copied
in your system. And there's a way to keep track of theses files, so to remove
them.

What this PEP proposes
----------------------

To address those issues, this PEP proposes a few changes:

- a new `.egg-info` structure using a directory, based on the `EggFormats`
  standard from `setuptools` [#eggformats]_.
- new APIs in `pkgutil` to be able to query the information of installed
  projects.
- a de-facto replacement for PEP 262
- an uninstall function in Distutils.


.egg-info becomes a directory
=============================

The first change would be to make `.egg-info` a directory and let it
hold the `PKG-INFO` file built by the `write_pkg_file` method of
the `Distribution` class in Distutils.

Notice that this change is based on the standard proposed by `EggFormats`.
You may refer to its documentation for more information.

This change will not impact Python itself, because `egg-info` files are not
used anywhere yet in the standard library besides Distutils.

Although it will impact the `setuptools` and `pip` projects, but given
the fact that they already work with a directory that contains a `PKG-INFO`
file, the change will have no deep consequences.

For example, if the `zlib` package is installed, the elements that
will be installed in `site-packages` will become::

    - zlib
    - zlib-2.5.2.egg-info/
        PKG-INFO

The syntax of the egg-info directory name is as follows::

    name + '-' + version + '.egg-info'

The egg-info directory name is created using a new function called
``egg_info_dirname(name, version)`` added to ``pkgutil``. ``name`` is
converted to a standard distribution name any runs of non-alphanumeric
characters are replaced with a single '-'. ``version`` is converted
to a standard version string. Spaces become dots, and all other
non-alphanumeric characters become dashes, with runs of multiple dashes
condensed to a single dash. Both attributes are then converted into their
filename-escaped form. Any '-' characters are currently replaced with '_'.

Examples::

    >>> egg_info_dirname('zlib', '2.5.2')
    'zlib-2.5.2.egg-info'

    >>> egg_info_dirname('python-ldap', '2.5')
    'python_ldap-2.5.egg-info'

    >>> egg_info_dirname('python-ldap', '2.5 a---5')
    'python_ldap-2.5.a_5.egg-info'

Adding a RECORD file in the .egg-info directory
===============================================

A `RECORD` file will be added inside the `.egg-info` directory at installation
time. The `RECORD` file will hold the list of installed files. These correspond
to the files listed by the `record` option of the `install` command, and will
always be generated. This will allow uninstallation, as explained later in this
PEP. This RECORD file is inspired from PEP 262 FILES [#pep262]_.

The RECORD format
-----------------

The `RECORD` file is a CSV-like file, composed of records, one line per
installed file. Each record is composed of three elements.

- the file's full **path**

 - if the installed file is located in the directory where the .egg-info
   directory of the package is located, it will be a '/'-separated relative
   path, no matter what is the target system. This makes this information
   cross-compatible and allows simple installation to be relocatable.

 - if the installed file is located elsewhere in the system, a
   '/'-separated absolute path is used.

- the **MD5** hash of the file, encoded in hex. Notice that `pyc` and `pyo`
  generated files will not have a hash.

- the file's size in bytes

The ``csv`` module with its default options will be used to generate this file,
so the field separator will be ",". Any "," characters found within a field
will be escaped automatically by ``csv``.

Example
-------

Back to our `zlib` example, we will have::

    - zlib
    - zlib-2.5.2.egg-info/
        PKG-INFO
        RECORD

And the RECORD file will contain::

    zlib/include/zconf.h,b690274f621402dda63bf11ba5373bf2,9544
    zlib/include/zlib.h,9c4b84aff68aa55f2e9bf70481b94333,66188
    zlib/lib/libz.a,e6d43fb94292411909404b07d0692d46,91128
    zlib/share/man/man3/zlib.3,785dc03452f0508ff0678fba2457e0ba,4486
    zlib-2.5.2.egg-info/PKG-INFO,6fe57de576d749536082d8e205b77748,195
    zlib-2.5.2.egg-info/RECORD

Notice that:

- the `RECORD` file can't contain a hash of itself and is just mentioned here
- `zlib` and `zlib-2.5.2.egg-info` are located in `site-packages` so the file
  paths are relative to it.

New APIs in pkgutil
===================

To use the `.egg-info` directory content, we need to add in the standard
library a set of APIs. The best place to put these APIs seems to be `pkgutil`.

The API is organized in three classes:

- ``EggInfo``: manages an `.egg-info` directory.
- ``EggInfoDirectory``: manages a directory that contains some `.egg-info`
  directories.
- ``EggInfoDirectories``: manages ``EggInfoDirectory`` instances.

EggInfo class
-------------

A new class called ``EggInfo`` is created with a the path of the `.egg-info`
directory provided to the contructor. It reads the metadata contained in
`PKG-INFO` when it is instanciated.

``EggInfo`` provides the following attributes:

- ``name``: The name of the project

- ``metadata``: A ``DistributionMetadata`` instance loaded with the project's
  PKG-INFO file

And following methods:

- ``get_installed_files(local=False)`` -> iterator of (path, md5, size)

  Iterates over the `RECORD` entries and return a tuple ``(path, md5, size)``
  for each line. If ``local`` is ``True``, the path is transformed into a
  local absolute path. Otherwise the raw value from `RECORD` is returned.

- ``uses(path)`` -> Boolean

  Returns ``True`` if ``path`` is listed in `RECORD`. ``path``
  can be a local absolute path or a relative '/'-separated path.

- ``get_file(path, binary=False)`` -> file object

  Returns a ``file`` instance for the file pointed by ``path``. ``path`` can be
  a local absolute path or a relative '/'-separated path. If ``binary`` is
  ``True``, opens the file in binary mode.

EggInfoDirectory class
----------------------

A new class called ``EggInfoDirectory`` is created with a path corresponding
to a directory. For each `.egg-info` directory founded in `path`, the class
creates a corresponding ``EggInfo``.

The class is iterable, and returns every ``EggInfo`` instance created.

It also provides two methods:

- ``file_users(path)`` -> Iterator of ``EggInfo``.

  Returns all ``EggInfo`` which uses ``path``, by calling
  ``EggInfo.uses(path)`` on all ``EggInfo`` instances.

- ``owner(path)`` -> ``EggInfo`` instance or None

  If ``path`` is used by only one ``EggInfo`` instance, returns it.
  Otherwise returns None.

EggInfoDirectories class
-------------------------

A new class called ``EggInfoDirectories`` is created. It's a collection of
``EggInfoDirectory`` instances. The constructor takes one optional
argument ``use_cache`` set to ``True`` by default. When ``True``,
``EggInfoDirectories`` will use a global cache to reduce the numbers of I/O
accesses and speed up the lookups.

The cache is a global mapping containing ``EggInfoDirectory`` instances.
When an ``EggInfoDirectories`` object is created, it will use the cache to
add an entry for each path it visits, or reuse existing entries. The cache
usage can be disabled at any time with the `use_cache` attribute.

The cache can also be emptied with the global ``purge_cache`` function.

The class is iterable, and returns every ``EggInfo`` instance from every
``EggInfoDirectory`` instance it contains.

``EggInfoDirectories`` also provides the following container and helper
methods:

- ``append(path)``

  Creates an ``EggInfoDirectory`` instance. for ``path`` appends it.

- ``remove(egg_info_dir)``

  Removes the ``EggInfoDirectory`` instance for the given ``path``.

- ``clear()``

  Removes all elements.

- ``load(paths)``

  Creates and adds ``EggInfoDirectory`` instances corresponding to ``paths``.

- ``reload()``

  Reloads existing entries.

- ``get_egg_infos()`` -> Iterator of ``EggInfo`` instances.

  Iterates over all ``EggInfo`` contained in ``EggInfoDirectory`` instances.

- ``get_egg_info(project_name)`` -> ``EggInfo`` or None.

  Returns an EggInfo instance for the given project name.
  If not found, returns None.

- ``get_file_users(path)`` -> Iterator of ``EggInfo`` instances.

  Iterates over all projects to find out which project uses the file.
  Returns ``EggInfo`` instances.

.egg-info functions
-------------------

The new functions added in the ``pkgutil`` are :

- ``get_egg_infos(paths=sys.path)`` -> iterator

  Provides an iterator that looks for ``.egg-info`` directories in ``sys.path``
  and returns ``EggInfo`` instances for each one of them.

- ``get_egg_info(project_name, paths=sys.path)`` -> path or None

  Scans all elements in ``sys.path`` and looks for all directories ending with
  ``.egg-info``. Returns an ``EggInfo`` corresponding to the ``.egg-info``
  directory that contains a PKG-INFO that matches `project_name` for the `name`
  metadata.

  Notice that there should be at most one result. The first result founded
  will be returned. If the directory is not found, returns None.

- ``get_file_users(path, paths=sys.path)`` -> iterator of ``EggInfo`` instances.

  Iterates over all projects to find out which project uses ``path``.
  ``path`` can be a local absolute path or a relative '/'-separated path.

All these functions use the same global instance of ``EggInfoDirectories`` to
use the cache. Notice that the cache is never emptied explicitely so it keeps
on growing everytime it is used with new paths.

Example
-------

Let's use some of the new APIs with our `zlib` example::

    >>> from pkgutil import get_egg_info, get_file_users
    >>> egg_info = get_egg_info('zlib')
    >>> egg_info.name
    'zlib'
    >>> egg_info.metadata.version
    '2.5.2'

    '/opt/local/lib/python2.6/site-packages/zlib-2.5.2.egg-info'
    >>> metadata = get_metadata('zlib')
    >>> metadata.version
    '2.5.2'

    >>> for path, hash, size in egg_info.get_installed_files()::
    ...     print '%s %s %d %s' % (path, hash, size)
    ...
    zlib/include/zconf.h b690274f621402dda63bf11ba5373bf2 9544
    zlib/include/zlib.h 9c4b84aff68aa55f2e9bf70481b94333 66188
    zlib/lib/libz.a e6d43fb94292411909404b07d0692d46 91128
    zlib/share/man/man3/zlib.3 785dc03452f0508ff0678fba2457e0ba 4486
    zlib-2.5.2.egg-info/PKG-INFO 6fe57de576d749536082d8e205b77748 195
    zlib-2.5.2.egg-info/RECORD None None

    >>> egg_info.uses('zlib/include/zlib.h')
    True

    >>> egg_info.get_file('zlib/include/zlib.h')
    <open file at ...>

PEP 262 replacement
===================

In the past an attempt was made to create a installation database (see PEP 262
[#pep262]_).

Extract from PEP 262 Requirements:

    " We need a way to figure out what distributions, and what versions of
    those distributions, are installed on a system..."


Since the APIs proposed in the current PEP provide everything needed to meet
this requirement, PEP 376 will replace PEP 262 and will become the official
`installation database` standard.

The new version of PEP 345 (XXX work in progress) will extend the Metadata
standard and will fullfill the requirements described in PEP 262, like the
`REQUIRES` section.

Adding an Uninstall function
============================

Distutils already provides a very basic way to install a project, which is running
the `install` command over the `setup.py` script of the distribution.

Distutils will provide a very basic ``uninstall`` function, that will be added
in ``distutils.util`` and will take the name of the project to uninstall as
its argument. ``uninstall`` will use the APIs desribed earlier and remove all
unique files, as long as their hash didn't change. Then it will remove
empty directories left behind.

``uninstall`` will return a list of uninstalled files::

    >>> from distutils.util import uninstall
    >>> uninstall('zlib')
    ['/opt/local/lib/python2.6/site-packages/zlib/file1',
     '/opt/local/lib/python2.6/site-packages/zlib/file2']

If the project is not found, a ``DistutilsUninstallError`` will be raised.

To make it a reference API for third-party projects that wish to control
how `uninstall` works, a second callable argument can be used. It will be
called for each file that is removed. If the callable returns `True`, the
file will be removed. If it returns False, it will be left alone.

Examples::

    >>> def _remove_and_log(path):
    ...     logging.info('Removing %s' % path)
    ...     return True
    ...
    >>> uninstall('zlib', _remove_and_log)

    >>> def _dry_run(path):
    ...     logging.info('Removing %s (dry run)' % path)
    ...     return False
    ...
    >>> uninstall('zlib', _dry_run)

Of course, a third-party tool can use ``pkgutil`` APIs to implement
its own uninstall feature.

Backward compatibility and roadmap
==================================

These changes will not introduce any compatibility problems with the previous
version of Distutils, and will also work with existing third-party tools.

Although, a backport of the new Distutils for 2.5, 2.6, 3.0 and 3.1 will be
provided so people can benefit from these new features.

The plan is to integrate them for Python 2.7 and Python 3.2

References
==========

.. [#pep262]
   http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0262

.. [#pep314]
   http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0314

.. [#setuptools]
   http://peak.telecommunity.com/DevCenter/setuptools

.. [#pip]
   http://pypi.python.org/pypi/pip

.. [#eggformats]
   http://peak.telecommunity.com/DevCenter/EggFormats

Aknowledgments
==============

Jim Fulton, Ian Bicking, Phillip Eby, and many people at Pycon and Distutils-SIG.

Copyright
=========

This document has been placed in the public domain.



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