Re: Release on PyPi

[Tristan Van Berkom <tristan vanberkom codethink co uk>]

On Thu, 2018-06-28 at 19:28 +0100, Chandan Singh wrote:
> Hi Tristan,
>
> > I don't think that BuildStream is really suitable for distribution in
> > the python package distribution model.
>
> I agree that the python packaging model isn't quite right for BuildStream
> and as you mention we have issues with pip even locally. But, my point is that
> while we are using pip anyway, we might as well upload it to PyPi so that
> install and update operations become slightly simpler and do not require a Git
> checkout of the BuildStream repository.
>
> The way I look at it, if we are going to solve #332 relatively soon, then we
> should definitely wait for it. Otherwise, I do see some value in publishing to
> PyPi with the understanding that we may change the preferred method of
> installation in future.
>
> What do you think?

If we keep in mind that PyPi is not the ideal solution for distributing
BuildStream, and if "making it work" does not cause too much of a
disaster in the BuildStream codebase itself, then I have no objections
to patches which make BuildStream available on PyPi.

Note that I do not expect someone to come up with a patch which
provides our users with an ideal installation story either, e.g.:

  pip3 install BuildStream

Due to our not having only pure python dependencies, I expect there to
still be a fairly long list of exceptions and preparation that a user
has to do first, to ensure the above command actually *works*. E.g. we
currently still have a dependency on a host C compiler because of our
dependency on python `psutils` which invokes a C compiler through the
python setuptools/distutils codepaths.

For dependencies like OSTree and fuse, I don't know what the story will
look like.

I still wonder if... as I suspect in the end we still have to ensure
our non Python dependencies are available manually... if the install
command simply changes from:

  `git clone buildstream`
  `pip3 install --user .`

to:

  `pip3 install BuildStream`

Then will this change the UX at all ? Will we have made valuable use of
our time creating this ?


As I said above, if the patches are not a disaster and we keep in mind
that a PyPi entry might be deprecated by a more distro package type of
install... I won't object to them.

Cheers,
    -Tristan