How to handle configuration files with distutils to respect unixen's FHS?

Question

Suppose we have a program called foo.

If use absolute path:

setup(...,
      data_files=[...,
              ('/etc', ['foo.cfg'])]
)

Then foo$ python setup.py --prefix=/usr/local and we will have /etc/foo.cfg. But we should have /usr/local/etc/foo.cfg instead according to FHS.

What if we use a relative path?

setup(...,
      data_files=[...,
              ('etc', ['foo.cfg'])]
)

Then if we use the default install path, i.e. install to /usr, we will have /usr/etc/foo.cfg. Bad luck again.

So how to do it right?

P.S. To avoid make the problem more complicated, we assume that this program foo cannot run under non unix environment.

Immature

Answer 1

Sub-classing distutils.command.install.install is not strictly necessary. Instead, data_files could be passed to setup, as per distutils documentation on 'Installing Additional Files'.

e.g.

setup(
    ...
    data_files = [
        (conf_path, ['foo.cfg'])
    ]
)

where conf_path is calculated as per your own requirements. i.e. construct it by testing sys.prefix (instead of self.prefix), like @weakish did above.

Tsarina

Answer 2

It seems there is no easy way. The problem is that config files are special data files and they deserve special treatment.

So, write our own class:

class myinstall(distutils.command.install.install):
    if self.prefix == '/usr':
        self.conf_prefix = '/etc'
    else:
        self.conf_prefix = self.prefix + '/etc'

    install.finalize_options(self)

    def install_conf(self):
        self.mkpath((self.root or '') + self.conf_prefix)
        for file in self.distribution.conf_files:
        dest = (self.root or '') + self.conf_prefix + '/' +
            os.path.basename(file)
        self.copy_file(file, dest)

    # blah blah blah

Then:

setup(# blah blah blah
  conf_files = ['foo.cfg']
  cmdclass = {'install': myinstall,
      # blah blah blah
  }
)

Immature