mirror of https://github.com/python/cpython
42 lines
2.1 KiB
Plaintext
42 lines
2.1 KiB
Plaintext
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This is versioncheck 1.0, a first stab at automatic checking of versions of
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Python extension packages installed on your system.
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The basic idea is that each package contains a _checkversion.py
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somewhere, probably at the root level of the package. In addition, each
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package maintainer makes a file available on the net, through ftp or
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http, which contains the version number of the most recent distribution
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and some readable text explaining the differences with previous
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versions, where to download the package, etc.
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The checkversions.py script walks through the installed Python tree (or
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through a tree of choice), and runs each _checkversion.py script. These
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scripts retrieve the current-version file over the net, compares version
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numbers and tells the user about new versions of packages available.
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A boilerplate for the _checkversion.py file can be found here. Replace
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package name, version and the URL of the version-check file and put it in
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your distribution. In stead of a single URL you can also specify a list
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of URLs. Each of these will be checked in order until one is available,
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this is handy for distributions that live in multiple places. Put the
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primary distribution site (the most up-to-date site) before others.
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The script is executed with execfile(), not imported, and the current
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directory is the checkversion directory, so be careful with globals,
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importing, etc.
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The version-check file consists of an rfc822-style header followed by
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plaintext. The only header field checked currently is
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'Current-Version:', which should contain te current version and is
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matched against the string contained in the _checkversion.py script.
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The rest of the file is human-readable text and presented to the user if
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there is a version mismatch. It should contain at the very least a URL
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of either the current distribution or a webpage describing it.
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Pycheckversion.py is the module that does the actual checking of versions.
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It should be fine where it is, it is imported by checkversion before anything
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else is done, but if imports fail you may want to move it to somewhere
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along sys.path.
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Jack Jansen, CWI, 23-Dec-97.
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<jack@cwi.nl>
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