Metadata-Version: 1.1
Name: setuphelper
Version: 0.3
Summary: A helper module for setup.py scripts.
Home-page: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/setuphelper/0.3
Author: Peter A. Donis
Author-email: peterdonis@alum.mit.edu
License: UNKNOWN
Download-URL: http://pypi.python.org/packages/source/s/setuphelper/setuphelper-0.3.tar.gz
Description: SetupHelper: Automating Boilerplate in Python Setup Scripts
        ===========================================================
        
        This Python module will make your setup scripts simpler to
        write, by automating as much as possible of the 'boilerplate'
        that normally goes into them. Instead of invoking the setup
        function with a long list of keyword arguments, you just set
        global variables in your setup script and then invoke the
        setup_main function, passing globals() as its argument. (The
        SetupHelper setup.py script itself illustrates this usage.)
        
        The helper module does all the grunt work of translating your
        variables into keyword arguments, including automatically
        deducing and generating many arguments so that you only have
        to specify a much simpler set of data. As a bonus, if you are
        using Python's standard distutils, SetupHelper provides (very
        basic!) support for the requires keyword, downloading and
        installing required packages for you, as long as their download
        URLs are available on PyPI. (You can also specify a local
        directory as a "repository" by setting the environment
        variable ``PYPI_LOCAL`` to point to it--see the ``CHANGES``
        file in the source archive for details.)
        
        (Note that the distutils in Python
        2.5 and later allow the requires keyword in distribution
        metadata, but do not actually use it to install anything for
        you. Of course some distutils replacements like setuptools do
        provide this functionality; if you are using setuptools, you
        can set the variable ``__distutils_pkg__`` to ``'setuptools'``
        and SetupHelper will use setuptools' support instead of its own.
        SetupHelper also adds the requires, provides, and obsoletes
        keywords to your package metadata when you use the
        ``setup.py register`` command with Python versions < 2.5 (in
        other words, it gives you support for metadata version 1.1
        even if your Python version doesn't.)
        
        Since SetupHelper has all the information needed to determine
        what should be in your source or binary distribution files,
        it auto-generates ``MANIFEST.in`` each time it runs, so you don't
        have to maintain your ``MANIFEST.in`` file manually (and if you
        did, it would get overwritten anyway). Even though it is not
        strictly necessary to write ``MANIFEST.in`` unless you are running
        a distribution command, SetupHelper does it every time because
        checking its output can often help you debug problems with the
        variable definitions in your setup script. (At least, it has
        certainly helped *me* to do that!)
        
        As one other bonus, SetupHelper allows you to automate the
        running of post-install scripts; just set the ``__post_install__``
        variable in your ``setup.py`` to a list of script names to be run
        from a subshell (this is done using ``os.system``, so it has the
        limitations of that Python command). It is desirable to allow
        post-install scripts to be run from ``setup.py`` so that SetupHelper
        can ensure that any required packages are fully installed by
        just calling ``python setup.py install`` on them once they are
        unpacked. (Note that, if you are using setuptools, this feature
        does not work, as setuptools does not actually run
        ``python setup.py install`` to install your package. A future
        version of SetupHelper might lift this constraint.)
        
        Installation
        ------------
        
        Of course, to install SetupHelper, you can simply type::
        
        $ python setup.py install
        
        in the directory where you unpacked the SetupHelper archive.
        However, since SetupHelper is used by setup scripts, you will
        probably want to include it along with your ``setup.py`` in the
        source archives for your Python projects.
Platform: UNKNOWN
Classifier: Development Status :: 3 - Alpha
Classifier: Environment :: Console
Classifier: Intended Audience :: Developers
Classifier: Intended Audience :: System Administrators
Classifier: License :: OSI Approved :: Python Software Foundation License
Classifier: Operating System :: OS Independent
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python
Classifier: Topic :: Software Development :: Libraries :: Python Modules
Classifier: Topic :: System :: Systems Administration
Classifier: Topic :: Utilities
