Add distutils support to builder

[alexlarsson]

From @TingPing on June 21, 2016 9:0

Quite a lot of Python projects use distutils/setuptools and would be nice to support that. Something like:

"modules": [
  {
    "name": "...",
    "no-autogen": true,
    "distutils": true
  }
]

That seems consistent with cmake. It would check for setup.py, run ./setup.py build --prefix=... and ./setup.py install --prefix=... --optimize=1 --skip-build. Though some projects don't have an exectuable setup.py so there would have to be another variable for python2 vs python3 in that case...

Copied from original issue: flatpak/flatpak#134

[alexlarsson]

See also https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/issues/39

[alexlarsson]

From @bochecha on December 19, 2016 18:10

Though some projects don't have an exectuable setup.py so there would have to be another variable for python2 vs python3 in that case...

How about running $PYTHON setup.py ... instead?

The PYTHON env var could be set to /usr/bin/python2 by default, and each JSON manifest could set it to something else instead? It would even help with finding a different Python version in /app as well.

[alexlarsson]

From @TingPing on December 19, 2016 22:26

Possible. @alexlarsson also mentioned the idea of a "simple" buildsystem type where you just directly give it the configure and make commands which would be sufficient for this.

[alexlarsson]

Yes, having a buildsystem type that basically does nothing, but lets you list some commandlines to run, similar to post-install, or maybe even actually use post-install.

[alexlarsson]

From @TheBiggerGuy on January 25, 2017 8:13

For reference I have found this the most effect pattern for Python packages.

{
  "name": "cheetah",
  "no-autogen": true,
  "sources": [
    {
      "type": "archive",
      "url": "https://pypi.python.org/packages/cd/b0/c2d700252fc251e91c08639ff41a8a5203b627f4e0a2ae18a6b662ab32ea/Cheetah-2.4.4.tar.gz",
      "sha256": "be308229f0c1e5e5af4f27d7ee06d90bb19e6af3059794e5fd536a6f29a9b550"
    }, {
      "type": "shell",
      "commands": [ "echo 'all:\n\ninstall:\n\tpython ./setup.py install --prefix=/app' > makefile" ]
    }
  ]
}

Naturally full support for Python as a first class build system would be preferably. This would be ideal.

{
  "name": "cheetah",
  "buildsystem": "setup.py",
  "sources": [
    {
      "type": "archive",
      "url": "https://pypi.python.org/packages/cd/b0/c2d700252fc251e91c08639ff41a8a5203b627f4e0a2ae18a6b662ab32ea/Cheetah-2.4.4.tar.gz",
      "sha256": "be308229f0c1e5e5af4f27d7ee06d90bb19e6af3059794e5fd536a6f29a9b550"
    }
  ]
}

[alexlarsson]

Alternatively we could have a buildsystem: "simple", which just lets you type in an array of commands to run.

[alexlarsson]

From @TingPing on January 26, 2017 9:12

Python modules are fairly common to the point where a built-in option for it would be nice though.

[alexlarsson]

From @bochecha on January 26, 2017 10:26

Python modules are fairly common to the point where a built-in option for it would be nice though.

Except some work with python setup.py build -j X, but others fail as they don't know this option (because distutils vs setuptools).

And some work fine when you split python setup.py build and python setup.py install --skip-build, but others don't. (e.g numpy)

Etc...

And in the future, Python modules will have a pyproject.toml file and the Python packaging will probably change a lot (started with PEP 518, but there's still lots to do), to the point where setup.py files might disappear entirely.

So maybe for now the "buildsystem": "simple" approach is still the simplest for flatpak.

Plus, it's needed for other things than Python anyway. (I'm looking at you Boost and your b2 tool)

[alexlarsson]

So, who wants to do "buildsystem": "simple"? :)

[alexlarsson]

From @bochecha on May 10, 2017 8:39

Should we close this now that we have the simple buildsystem?

[dcbaker]

I'm still having problems with this with more than one python module, they all want to write into easy-install.pth, but only the first one is allowed to because it's a read only file system after the first one.

I couldn't find anything in the docs to force writing into the file..

[jiri-janousek]

@dcbaker This should help (some modules also use setuptools.pth):

"buildsystem": "simple",
"ensure-writable": [
    "/lib/python3.6/site-packages/easy-install.pth",
    "/lib/python3.6/site-packages/setuptools.pth"
],
...

[dcbaker]

Thanks. I did find that option, but I hadn't thought to add setuptools.pth as well, but I'm sure I'll run into that before too much longer.