[bug#45712] [PATCHES] Improve Python package quality

[Lars-Dominik Braun]

Hi Maxim,

> Thanks for the initiative!  It looks good, on first sight.  One question
> I have is this: does it rely on the Python package having been built
> with setuptools/distutils?  The Python world is moving toward a
> plurality of PEP 517 compliant build systems; any idea if the checker
> will continue working for these new packages?
yes and no. pkg_resources is part of setuptools, so my patch depends on
setuptools. But I think dependencies are specified in a standardized
format[1], which any tool can (and should?) write.

top_level.txt seems to be part of python eggs, which are deprecated[2].
I guess we could just scan for top-level directories under
site-packages, which have a __init__.py and try to load them.

I can’t find any standard for the entry points, so I’m guessing they’re
setuptools-specific too.

My assumption is that if no metadata is found the checks are just
skipped and nothing bad happens, but we may have to verify this.

As for PEP 517, I’m working on updating python-build-system, see
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2021-01/msg00294.html
I’ll send an updated patch to guix-patches@ as soon as I have the 'check
phase working.

Cheers,
Lars

[1] 
https://packaging.python.org/specifications/core-metadata/#requires-dist-multiple-use
[2] 
https://setuptools.readthedocs.io/en/latest/deprecated/python_eggs.html#top-level-txt-conflict-management-metadata