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- =====================================
- The Internal Structure of Python Eggs
- =====================================
- STOP! This is not the first document you should read!
- .. contents:: **Table of Contents**
- ----------------------
- Eggs and their Formats
- ----------------------
- A "Python egg" is a logical structure embodying the release of a
- specific version of a Python project, comprising its code, resources,
- and metadata. There are multiple formats that can be used to physically
- encode a Python egg, and others can be developed. However, a key
- principle of Python eggs is that they should be discoverable and
- importable. That is, it should be possible for a Python application to
- easily and efficiently find out what eggs are present on a system, and
- to ensure that the desired eggs' contents are importable.
- There are two basic formats currently implemented for Python eggs:
- 1. ``.egg`` format: a directory or zipfile *containing* the project's
- code and resources, along with an ``EGG-INFO`` subdirectory that
- contains the project's metadata
- 2. ``.egg-info`` format: a file or directory placed *adjacent* to the
- project's code and resources, that directly contains the project's
- metadata.
- Both formats can include arbitrary Python code and resources, including
- static data files, package and non-package directories, Python
- modules, C extension modules, and so on. But each format is optimized
- for different purposes.
- The ``.egg`` format is well-suited to distribution and the easy
- uninstallation or upgrades of code, since the project is essentially
- self-contained within a single directory or file, unmingled with any
- other projects' code or resources. It also makes it possible to have
- multiple versions of a project simultaneously installed, such that
- individual programs can select the versions they wish to use.
- The ``.egg-info`` format, on the other hand, was created to support
- backward-compatibility, performance, and ease of installation for system
- packaging tools that expect to install all projects' code and resources
- to a single directory (e.g. ``site-packages``). Placing the metadata
- in that same directory simplifies the installation process, since it
- isn't necessary to create ``.pth`` files or otherwise modify
- ``sys.path`` to include each installed egg.
- Its disadvantage, however, is that it provides no support for clean
- uninstallation or upgrades, and of course only a single version of a
- project can be installed to a given directory. Thus, support from a
- package management tool is required. (This is why setuptools' "install"
- command refers to this type of egg installation as "single-version,
- externally managed".) Also, they lack sufficient data to allow them to
- be copied from their installation source. easy_install can "ship" an
- application by copying ``.egg`` files or directories to a target
- location, but it cannot do this for ``.egg-info`` installs, because
- there is no way to tell what code and resources belong to a particular
- egg -- there may be several eggs "scrambled" together in a single
- installation location, and the ``.egg-info`` format does not currently
- include a way to list the files that were installed. (This may change
- in a future version.)
- Code and Resources
- ==================
- The layout of the code and resources is dictated by Python's normal
- import layout, relative to the egg's "base location".
- For the ``.egg`` format, the base location is the ``.egg`` itself. That
- is, adding the ``.egg`` filename or directory name to ``sys.path``
- makes its contents importable.
- For the ``.egg-info`` format, however, the base location is the
- directory that *contains* the ``.egg-info``, and thus it is the
- directory that must be added to ``sys.path`` to make the egg importable.
- (Note that this means that the "normal" installation of a package to a
- ``sys.path`` directory is sufficient to make it an "egg" if it has an
- ``.egg-info`` file or directory installed alongside of it.)
- Project Metadata
- =================
- If eggs contained only code and resources, there would of course be
- no difference between them and any other directory or zip file on
- ``sys.path``. Thus, metadata must also be included, using a metadata
- file or directory.
- For the ``.egg`` format, the metadata is placed in an ``EGG-INFO``
- subdirectory, directly within the ``.egg`` file or directory. For the
- ``.egg-info`` format, metadata is stored directly within the
- ``.egg-info`` directory itself.
- The minimum project metadata that all eggs must have is a standard
- Python ``PKG-INFO`` file, named ``PKG-INFO`` and placed within the
- metadata directory appropriate to the format. Because it's possible for
- this to be the only metadata file included, ``.egg-info`` format eggs
- are not required to be a directory; they can just be a ``.egg-info``
- file that directly contains the ``PKG-INFO`` metadata. This eliminates
- the need to create a directory just to store one file. This option is
- *not* available for ``.egg`` formats, since setuptools always includes
- other metadata. (In fact, setuptools itself never generates
- ``.egg-info`` files, either; the support for using files was added so
- that the requirement could easily be satisfied by other tools, such
- as the distutils in Python 2.5).
- In addition to the ``PKG-INFO`` file, an egg's metadata directory may
- also include files and directories representing various forms of
- optional standard metadata (see the section on `Standard Metadata`_,
- below) or user-defined metadata required by the project. For example,
- some projects may define a metadata format to describe their application
- plugins, and metadata in this format would then be included by plugin
- creators in their projects' metadata directories.
- Filename-Embedded Metadata
- ==========================
- To allow introspection of installed projects and runtime resolution of
- inter-project dependencies, a certain amount of information is embedded
- in egg filenames. At a minimum, this includes the project name, and
- ideally will also include the project version number. Optionally, it
- can also include the target Python version and required runtime
- platform if platform-specific C code is included. The syntax of an
- egg filename is as follows::
- name ["-" version ["-py" pyver ["-" required_platform]]] "." ext
- The "name" and "version" should be escaped using the ``to_filename()``
- function provided by ``pkg_resources``, after first processing them with
- ``safe_name()`` and ``safe_version()`` respectively. These latter two
- functions can also be used to later "unescape" these parts of the
- filename. (For a detailed description of these transformations, please
- see the "Parsing Utilities" section of the ``pkg_resources`` manual.)
- The "pyver" string is the Python major version, as found in the first
- 3 characters of ``sys.version``. "required_platform" is essentially
- a distutils ``get_platform()`` string, but with enhancements to properly
- distinguish Mac OS versions. (See the ``get_build_platform()``
- documentation in the "Platform Utilities" section of the
- ``pkg_resources`` manual for more details.)
- Finally, the "ext" is either ``.egg`` or ``.egg-info``, as appropriate
- for the egg's format.
- Normally, an egg's filename should include at least the project name and
- version, as this allows the runtime system to find desired project
- versions without having to read the egg's PKG-INFO to determine its
- version number.
- Setuptools, however, only includes the version number in the filename
- when an ``.egg`` file is built using the ``bdist_egg`` command, or when
- an ``.egg-info`` directory is being installed by the
- ``install_egg_info`` command. When generating metadata for use with the
- original source tree, it only includes the project name, so that the
- directory will not have to be renamed each time the project's version
- changes.
- This is especially important when version numbers change frequently, and
- the source metadata directory is kept under version control with the
- rest of the project. (As would be the case when the project's source
- includes project-defined metadata that is not generated from by
- setuptools from data in the setup script.)
- Egg Links
- =========
- In addition to the ``.egg`` and ``.egg-info`` formats, there is a third
- egg-related extension that you may encounter on occasion: ``.egg-link``
- files.
- These files are not eggs, strictly speaking. They simply provide a way
- to reference an egg that is not physically installed in the desired
- location. They exist primarily as a cross-platform alternative to
- symbolic links, to support "installing" code that is being developed in
- a different location than the desired installation location. For
- example, if a user is developing an application plugin in their home
- directory, but the plugin needs to be "installed" in an application
- plugin directory, running "setup.py develop -md /path/to/app/plugins"
- will install an ``.egg-link`` file in ``/path/to/app/plugins``, that
- tells the egg runtime system where to find the actual egg (the user's
- project source directory and its ``.egg-info`` subdirectory).
- ``.egg-link`` files are named following the format for ``.egg`` and
- ``.egg-info`` names, but only the project name is included; no version,
- Python version, or platform information is included. When the runtime
- searches for available eggs, ``.egg-link`` files are opened and the
- actual egg file/directory name is read from them.
- Each ``.egg-link`` file should contain a single file or directory name,
- with no newlines. This filename should be the base location of one or
- more eggs. That is, the name must either end in ``.egg``, or else it
- should be the parent directory of one or more ``.egg-info`` format eggs.
- As of setuptools 0.6c6, the path may be specified as a platform-independent
- (i.e. ``/``-separated) relative path from the directory containing the
- ``.egg-link`` file, and a second line may appear in the file, specifying a
- platform-independent relative path from the egg's base directory to its
- setup script directory. This allows installation tools such as EasyInstall
- to find the project's setup directory and build eggs or perform other setup
- commands on it.
- -----------------
- Standard Metadata
- -----------------
- In addition to the minimum required ``PKG-INFO`` metadata, projects can
- include a variety of standard metadata files or directories, as
- described below. Except as otherwise noted, these files and directories
- are automatically generated by setuptools, based on information supplied
- in the setup script or through analysis of the project's code and
- resources.
- Most of these files and directories are generated via "egg-info
- writers" during execution of the setuptools ``egg_info`` command, and
- are listed in the ``egg_info.writers`` entry point group defined by
- setuptools' own ``setup.py`` file.
- Project authors can register their own metadata writers as entry points
- in this group (as described in the setuptools manual under "Adding new
- EGG-INFO Files") to cause setuptools to generate project-specific
- metadata files or directories during execution of the ``egg_info``
- command. It is up to project authors to document these new metadata
- formats, if they create any.
- ``.txt`` File Formats
- =====================
- Files described in this section that have ``.txt`` extensions have a
- simple lexical format consisting of a sequence of text lines, each line
- terminated by a linefeed character (regardless of platform). Leading
- and trailing whitespace on each line is ignored, as are blank lines and
- lines whose first nonblank character is a ``#`` (comment symbol). (This
- is the parsing format defined by the ``yield_lines()`` function of
- the ``pkg_resources`` module.)
- All ``.txt`` files defined by this section follow this format, but some
- are also "sectioned" files, meaning that their contents are divided into
- sections, using square-bracketed section headers akin to Windows
- ``.ini`` format. Note that this does *not* imply that the lines within
- the sections follow an ``.ini`` format, however. Please see an
- individual metadata file's documentation for a description of what the
- lines and section names mean in that particular file.
- Sectioned files can be parsed using the ``split_sections()`` function;
- see the "Parsing Utilities" section of the ``pkg_resources`` manual for
- for details.
- Dependency Metadata
- ===================
- ``requires.txt``
- ----------------
- This is a "sectioned" text file. Each section is a sequence of
- "requirements", as parsed by the ``parse_requirements()`` function;
- please see the ``pkg_resources`` manual for the complete requirement
- parsing syntax.
- The first, unnamed section (i.e., before the first section header) in
- this file is the project's core requirements, which must be installed
- for the project to function. (Specified using the ``install_requires``
- keyword to ``setup()``).
- The remaining (named) sections describe the project's "extra"
- requirements, as specified using the ``extras_require`` keyword to
- ``setup()``. The section name is the name of the optional feature, and
- the section body lists that feature's dependencies.
- Note that it is not normally necessary to inspect this file directly;
- ``pkg_resources.Distribution`` objects have a ``requires()`` method
- that can be used to obtain ``Requirement`` objects describing the
- project's core and optional dependencies.
- ``setup_requires.txt``
- ----------------------
- Much like ``requires.txt`` except represents the requirements
- specified by the ``setup_requires`` parameter to the Distribution.
- ``dependency_links.txt``
- ------------------------
- A list of dependency URLs, one per line, as specified using the
- ``dependency_links`` keyword to ``setup()``. These may be direct
- download URLs, or the URLs of web pages containing direct download
- links, and will be used by EasyInstall to find dependencies, as though
- the user had manually provided them via the ``--find-links`` command
- line option. Please see the setuptools manual and EasyInstall manual
- for more information on specifying this option, and for information on
- how EasyInstall processes ``--find-links`` URLs.
- ``depends.txt`` -- Obsolete, do not create!
- -------------------------------------------
- This file follows an identical format to ``requires.txt``, but is
- obsolete and should not be used. The earliest versions of setuptools
- required users to manually create and maintain this file, so the runtime
- still supports reading it, if it exists. The new filename was created
- so that it could be automatically generated from ``setup()`` information
- without overwriting an existing hand-created ``depends.txt``, if one
- was already present in the project's source ``.egg-info`` directory.
- ``namespace_packages.txt`` -- Namespace Package Metadata
- ========================================================
- A list of namespace package names, one per line, as supplied to the
- ``namespace_packages`` keyword to ``setup()``. Please see the manuals
- for setuptools and ``pkg_resources`` for more information about
- namespace packages.
- ``entry_points.txt`` -- "Entry Point"/Plugin Metadata
- =====================================================
- This is a "sectioned" text file, whose contents encode the
- ``entry_points`` keyword supplied to ``setup()``. All sections are
- named, as the section names specify the entry point groups in which the
- corresponding section's entry points are registered.
- Each section is a sequence of "entry point" lines, each parseable using
- the ``EntryPoint.parse`` classmethod; please see the ``pkg_resources``
- manual for the complete entry point parsing syntax.
- Note that it is not necessary to parse this file directly; the
- ``pkg_resources`` module provides a variety of APIs to locate and load
- entry points automatically. Please see the setuptools and
- ``pkg_resources`` manuals for details on the nature and uses of entry
- points.
- The ``scripts`` Subdirectory
- ============================
- This directory is currently only created for ``.egg`` files built by
- the setuptools ``bdist_egg`` command. It will contain copies of all
- of the project's "traditional" scripts (i.e., those specified using the
- ``scripts`` keyword to ``setup()``). This is so that they can be
- reconstituted when an ``.egg`` file is installed.
- The scripts are placed here using the distutils' standard
- ``install_scripts`` command, so any ``#!`` lines reflect the Python
- installation where the egg was built. But instead of copying the
- scripts to the local script installation directory, EasyInstall writes
- short wrapper scripts that invoke the original scripts from inside the
- egg, after ensuring that sys.path includes the egg and any eggs it
- depends on. For more about `script wrappers`_, see the section below on
- `Installation and Path Management Issues`_.
- Zip Support Metadata
- ====================
- ``native_libs.txt``
- -------------------
- A list of C extensions and other dynamic link libraries contained in
- the egg, one per line. Paths are ``/``-separated and relative to the
- egg's base location.
- This file is generated as part of ``bdist_egg`` processing, and as such
- only appears in ``.egg`` files (and ``.egg`` directories created by
- unpacking them). It is used to ensure that all libraries are extracted
- from a zipped egg at the same time, in case there is any direct linkage
- between them. Please see the `Zip File Issues`_ section below for more
- information on library and resource extraction from ``.egg`` files.
- ``eager_resources.txt``
- -----------------------
- A list of resource files and/or directories, one per line, as specified
- via the ``eager_resources`` keyword to ``setup()``. Paths are
- ``/``-separated and relative to the egg's base location.
- Resource files or directories listed here will be extracted
- simultaneously, if any of the named resources are extracted, or if any
- native libraries listed in ``native_libs.txt`` are extracted. Please
- see the setuptools manual for details on what this feature is used for
- and how it works, as well as the `Zip File Issues`_ section below.
- ``zip-safe`` and ``not-zip-safe``
- ---------------------------------
- These are zero-length files, and either one or the other should exist.
- If ``zip-safe`` exists, it means that the project will work properly
- when installed as an ``.egg`` zipfile, and conversely the existence of
- ``not-zip-safe`` means the project should not be installed as an
- ``.egg`` file. The ``zip_safe`` option to setuptools' ``setup()``
- determines which file will be written. If the option isn't provided,
- setuptools attempts to make its own assessment of whether the package
- can work, based on code and content analysis.
- If neither file is present at installation time, EasyInstall defaults
- to assuming that the project should be unzipped. (Command-line options
- to EasyInstall, however, take precedence even over an existing
- ``zip-safe`` or ``not-zip-safe`` file.)
- Note that these flag files appear only in ``.egg`` files generated by
- ``bdist_egg``, and in ``.egg`` directories created by unpacking such an
- ``.egg`` file.
- ``top_level.txt`` -- Conflict Management Metadata
- =================================================
- This file is a list of the top-level module or package names provided
- by the project, one Python identifier per line.
- Subpackages are not included; a project containing both a ``foo.bar``
- and a ``foo.baz`` would include only one line, ``foo``, in its
- ``top_level.txt``.
- This data is used by ``pkg_resources`` at runtime to issue a warning if
- an egg is added to ``sys.path`` when its contained packages may have
- already been imported.
- (It was also once used to detect conflicts with non-egg packages at
- installation time, but in more recent versions, setuptools installs eggs
- in such a way that they always override non-egg packages, thus
- preventing a problem from arising.)
- ``SOURCES.txt`` -- Source Files Manifest
- ========================================
- This file is roughly equivalent to the distutils' ``MANIFEST`` file.
- The differences are as follows:
- * The filenames always use ``/`` as a path separator, which must be
- converted back to a platform-specific path whenever they are read.
- * The file is automatically generated by setuptools whenever the
- ``egg_info`` or ``sdist`` commands are run, and it is *not*
- user-editable.
- Although this metadata is included with distributed eggs, it is not
- actually used at runtime for any purpose. Its function is to ensure
- that setuptools-built *source* distributions can correctly discover
- what files are part of the project's source, even if the list had been
- generated using revision control metadata on the original author's
- system.
- In other words, ``SOURCES.txt`` has little or no runtime value for being
- included in distributed eggs, and it is possible that future versions of
- the ``bdist_egg`` and ``install_egg_info`` commands will strip it before
- installation or distribution. Therefore, do not rely on its being
- available outside of an original source directory or source
- distribution.
- ------------------------------
- Other Technical Considerations
- ------------------------------
- Zip File Issues
- ===============
- Although zip files resemble directories, they are not fully
- substitutable for them. Most platforms do not support loading dynamic
- link libraries contained in zipfiles, so it is not possible to directly
- import C extensions from ``.egg`` zipfiles. Similarly, there are many
- existing libraries -- whether in Python or C -- that require actual
- operating system filenames, and do not work with arbitrary "file-like"
- objects or in-memory strings, and thus cannot operate directly on the
- contents of zip files.
- To address these issues, the ``pkg_resources`` module provides a
- "resource API" to support obtaining either the contents of a resource,
- or a true operating system filename for the resource. If the egg
- containing the resource is a directory, the resource's real filename
- is simply returned. However, if the egg is a zipfile, then the
- resource is first extracted to a cache directory, and the filename
- within the cache is returned.
- The cache directory is determined by the ``pkg_resources`` API; please
- see the ``set_cache_path()`` and ``get_default_cache()`` documentation
- for details.
- The Extraction Process
- ----------------------
- Resources are extracted to a cache subdirectory whose name is based
- on the enclosing ``.egg`` filename and the path to the resource. If
- there is already a file of the correct name, size, and timestamp, its
- filename is returned to the requester. Otherwise, the desired file is
- extracted first to a temporary name generated using
- ``mkstemp(".$extract",target_dir)``, and then its timestamp is set to
- match the one in the zip file, before renaming it to its final name.
- (Some collision detection and resolution code is used to handle the
- fact that Windows doesn't overwrite files when renaming.)
- If a resource directory is requested, all of its contents are
- recursively extracted in this fashion, to ensure that the directory
- name can be used as if it were valid all along.
- If the resource requested for extraction is listed in the
- ``native_libs.txt`` or ``eager_resources.txt`` metadata files, then
- *all* resources listed in *either* file will be extracted before the
- requested resource's filename is returned, thus ensuring that all
- C extensions and data used by them will be simultaneously available.
- Extension Import Wrappers
- -------------------------
- Since Python's built-in zip import feature does not support loading
- C extension modules from zipfiles, the setuptools ``bdist_egg`` command
- generates special import wrappers to make it work.
- The wrappers are ``.py`` files (along with corresponding ``.pyc``
- and/or ``.pyo`` files) that have the same module name as the
- corresponding C extension. These wrappers are located in the same
- package directory (or top-level directory) within the zipfile, so that
- say, ``foomodule.so`` will get a corresponding ``foo.py``, while
- ``bar/baz.pyd`` will get a corresponding ``bar/baz.py``.
- These wrapper files contain a short stanza of Python code that asks
- ``pkg_resources`` for the filename of the corresponding C extension,
- then reloads the module using the obtained filename. This will cause
- ``pkg_resources`` to first ensure that all of the egg's C extensions
- (and any accompanying "eager resources") are extracted to the cache
- before attempting to link to the C library.
- Note, by the way, that ``.egg`` directories will also contain these
- wrapper files. However, Python's default import priority is such that
- C extensions take precedence over same-named Python modules, so the
- import wrappers are ignored unless the egg is a zipfile.
- Installation and Path Management Issues
- =======================================
- Python's initial setup of ``sys.path`` is very dependent on the Python
- version and installation platform, as well as how Python was started
- (i.e., script vs. ``-c`` vs. ``-m`` vs. interactive interpreter).
- In fact, Python also provides only two relatively robust ways to affect
- ``sys.path`` outside of direct manipulation in code: the ``PYTHONPATH``
- environment variable, and ``.pth`` files.
- However, with no cross-platform way to safely and persistently change
- environment variables, this leaves ``.pth`` files as EasyInstall's only
- real option for persistent configuration of ``sys.path``.
- But ``.pth`` files are rather strictly limited in what they are allowed
- to do normally. They add directories only to the *end* of ``sys.path``,
- after any locally-installed ``site-packages`` directory, and they are
- only processed *in* the ``site-packages`` directory to start with.
- This is a double whammy for users who lack write access to that
- directory, because they can't create a ``.pth`` file that Python will
- read, and even if a sympathetic system administrator adds one for them
- that calls ``site.addsitedir()`` to allow some other directory to
- contain ``.pth`` files, they won't be able to install newer versions of
- anything that's installed in the systemwide ``site-packages``, because
- their paths will still be added *after* ``site-packages``.
- So EasyInstall applies two workarounds to solve these problems.
- The first is that EasyInstall leverages ``.pth`` files' "import" feature
- to manipulate ``sys.path`` and ensure that anything EasyInstall adds
- to a ``.pth`` file will always appear before both the standard library
- and the local ``site-packages`` directories. Thus, it is always
- possible for a user who can write a Python-read ``.pth`` file to ensure
- that their packages come first in their own environment.
- Second, when installing to a ``PYTHONPATH`` directory (as opposed to
- a "site" directory like ``site-packages``) EasyInstall will also install
- a special version of the ``site`` module. Because it's in a
- ``PYTHONPATH`` directory, this module will get control before the
- standard library version of ``site`` does. It will record the state of
- ``sys.path`` before invoking the "real" ``site`` module, and then
- afterwards it processes any ``.pth`` files found in ``PYTHONPATH``
- directories, including all the fixups needed to ensure that eggs always
- appear before the standard library in sys.path, but are in a relative
- order to one another that is defined by their ``PYTHONPATH`` and
- ``.pth``-prescribed sequence.
- The net result of these changes is that ``sys.path`` order will be
- as follows at runtime:
- 1. The ``sys.argv[0]`` directory, or an empty string if no script
- is being executed.
- 2. All eggs installed by EasyInstall in any ``.pth`` file in each
- ``PYTHONPATH`` directory, in order first by ``PYTHONPATH`` order,
- then normal ``.pth`` processing order (which is to say alphabetical
- by ``.pth`` filename, then by the order of listing within each
- ``.pth`` file).
- 3. All eggs installed by EasyInstall in any ``.pth`` file in each "site"
- directory (such as ``site-packages``), following the same ordering
- rules as for the ones on ``PYTHONPATH``.
- 4. The ``PYTHONPATH`` directories themselves, in their original order
- 5. Any paths from ``.pth`` files found on ``PYTHONPATH`` that were *not*
- eggs installed by EasyInstall, again following the same relative
- ordering rules.
- 6. The standard library and "site" directories, along with the contents
- of any ``.pth`` files found in the "site" directories.
- Notice that sections 1, 4, and 6 comprise the "normal" Python setup for
- ``sys.path``. Sections 2 and 3 are inserted to support eggs, and
- section 5 emulates what the "normal" semantics of ``.pth`` files on
- ``PYTHONPATH`` would be if Python natively supported them.
- For further discussion of the tradeoffs that went into this design, as
- well as notes on the actual magic inserted into ``.pth`` files to make
- them do these things, please see also the following messages to the
- distutils-SIG mailing list:
- * http://mail.python.org/pipermail/distutils-sig/2006-February/006026.html
- * http://mail.python.org/pipermail/distutils-sig/2006-March/006123.html
- Script Wrappers
- ---------------
- EasyInstall never directly installs a project's original scripts to
- a script installation directory. Instead, it writes short wrapper
- scripts that first ensure that the project's dependencies are active
- on sys.path, before invoking the original script. These wrappers
- have a #! line that points to the version of Python that was used to
- install them, and their second line is always a comment that indicates
- the type of script wrapper, the project version required for the script
- to run, and information identifying the script to be invoked.
- The format of this marker line is::
- "# EASY-INSTALL-" script_type ": " tuple_of_strings "\n"
- The ``script_type`` is one of ``SCRIPT``, ``DEV-SCRIPT``, or
- ``ENTRY-SCRIPT``. The ``tuple_of_strings`` is a comma-separated
- sequence of Python string constants. For ``SCRIPT`` and ``DEV-SCRIPT``
- wrappers, there are two strings: the project version requirement, and
- the script name (as a filename within the ``scripts`` metadata
- directory). For ``ENTRY-SCRIPT`` wrappers, there are three:
- the project version requirement, the entry point group name, and the
- entry point name. (See the "Automatic Script Creation" section in the
- setuptools manual for more information about entry point scripts.)
- In each case, the project version requirement string will be a string
- parseable with the ``pkg_resources`` modules' ``Requirement.parse()``
- classmethod. The only difference between a ``SCRIPT`` wrapper and a
- ``DEV-SCRIPT`` is that a ``DEV-SCRIPT`` actually executes the original
- source script in the project's source tree, and is created when the
- "setup.py develop" command is run. A ``SCRIPT`` wrapper, on the other
- hand, uses the "installed" script written to the ``EGG-INFO/scripts``
- subdirectory of the corresponding ``.egg`` zipfile or directory.
- (``.egg-info`` eggs do not have script wrappers associated with them,
- except in the "setup.py develop" case.)
- The purpose of including the marker line in generated script wrappers is
- to facilitate introspection of installed scripts, and their relationship
- to installed eggs. For example, an uninstallation tool could use this
- data to identify what scripts can safely be removed, and/or identify
- what scripts would stop working if a particular egg is uninstalled.
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