dist-packages和sys.path

Question

I have some code inside myapplication that look for some files inside myapplications' directories. I'm working with AptanaStudio, and I see that my code run OK, but when I create the debian package and I install it in another computer the search is unsuccessful because sys.path look like a different list.

From Aptana execution sys.path includes the path to the executable directory (/mysvncopy/myapplication) and I believe my code finds the files this way.

The application's installation leave this files at /usr/share/pyshared/myapplication and I thought this directory is automatically accessible regards to /usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages in sys.path , but something is wrong, /usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages IS in sys.path , of course, but the application do not find anything inside /usr/share/pyshared/myapplication .

How can I assure the application know to look for inside /usr/share/pyshared/myapplication and equivalent inside windows and mac?.

If I include in my code:

<sys.path.append('/usr/share/pyshared/myapplication')

the search is succesfull, but this code is SO dependent.

I can paste setup.py if necessary.

Thanks

Answer 1

I'm not familiar with using setup.py so this might not be useful, but..

If you import both sys and os in the top of your installer you can do something like this:

if sys.getwindowsversion():
    <install to Windows dir>
elif os.system('uname -a'):
    ostest = os.popen('uname -a').split(' ')
    if str('Linux') in ostest:
        <install to Linux dir>

and so on. I don't have a Mac so I don't know if uname -a returns anything in one, however if it does you can parse the ostest for something like OSX (which will most likely be in there somewhere). And have a separate file or set of files for each OS. Or even easier, after they install have some string in your original files called 'OSREPLACE' for example and then use something like this code continuing from the above portion after finding the os and assigning it as a variable:

...    
if os == 'linux':
    NEWSTRING = 'linuxpaths'
elif os == 'mac':
    NEWSTRING = 'macpaths'
elif os == 'windows':
    NEWSTRING = 'windowspaths'

for file in files:
        with open(str(file), 'r') as f:
            data = f.read()
            data = data.replace('OSREPLACE', 'NEWSTRING')
        with open(str(file), 'w') as f:
            f.write(data)       

Answer 2

If you're creating a debian package containing an application written in python, you should probably package it with pex ( https://github.com/pantsbuild/pex ) or cx_Freeze ( http://cx-freeze.sourceforge.net/ ) first. That way, your application always runs :)