[Fedora-packaging] Why do Fedora python packages install in site-packages?

Richard W.M. Jones rjones at redhat.com
Thu Dec 9 12:44:36 UTC 2010


I'm confused why Fedora Python packages get installed in
/usr/lib/python*/site-packages/.

Looking at the upstream Python documentation[1] it seems this
directory is reserved for packages installed by the local system
administrator.  (Similar to the Perl distinction between
INSTALLDIRS=vendor / INSTALLDIRS=site / INSTALLDIRS=core [2])

Not directly relevant, but Debian reserves[3] site-packages for the
system administrator, and puts Python packages in its own directory
(/usr/lib/python*/dist-packages).

Is this a mistake or am I not understanding the distinction?

Rich.

[1] http://docs.python.org/install/index.html
[2] http://rt.cpan.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=47396#txn-629736
[3] http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/python-policy/ch-python.html

-- 
Richard Jones, Virtualization Group, Red Hat http://people.redhat.com/~rjones
Read my programming blog: http://rwmj.wordpress.com
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