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by Baiju M.
Original Post: Buildout and setuptools
Feed Title: Programming life without Python(?)
Feed URL: http://baijum81.livejournal.com/data/rss
Feed Description: Programming life without Python(?)
(A comment to blog post by Tres Seavor -- I can't figure out how to add comment there, so this post.)
Buildout is build tool which can be used for any Python packages and not something only for Zope. Since it is created Jim Fulton, the Zope Pope, naturally there are many early adopters from Zope community. Buildout itself may not be enough for all purposes, but it can be extended using "recipes", the extension mechanism provided by Buildout. Buildout use setuptools, but it's not for replacing it. You can make use all features of setuptools while using Buildout. So, all the strengths of setuptools are available for Buildout also.
A buildout.cfg of a Python need not to have duplicate information given in setup.py . For example, a typical configuration file for a package will be like this:
[buildout]
develop = .
parts =
As you can see above there is no additional detail, the only information given is the packages required to be developed. (Here . means package in the current directory)
As you know any build system should have some kind of configuration, if you think its a clutter, well I don't know what to say.
Most of the packages are setuptools based and so you can run any command provided by setuptools. But if you want to get the benefits of using Buildout you should learn the Buildout system. Then you will be able to overcome the "foreign feeling".
As I said, Buildout doesn't prevent you from running any setuptools command. For example if your package's setup.py is configured to run 'test' command, you can run it. There are some buildout recipe which helps you to run tests in some weired way, but that is not a problem of buildout ! That recipe may have it's own reason for doing it that way, like handle extra dependencies, be more explicit, use a particular test runner etc.. If you don't want this recipe, it's OK, use your old setuptools test mechanism.
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