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pythonwarningseasy-install

warnings emitted during 'easy_install'

When I easy_install some python modules, warnings such as:

<some module>: module references __file__
<some module>: module references __path__
<some module>: module MAY be using inspect.trace
<some module>: module MAY be using inspect.getsourcefile

sometimes get emitted.

Where (what package / source file) do these messages come from? Why is referencing __file__ or __path__ considered a bad thing?

Solution

  • easy_install doesn't like use of __file__ and __path__ not so much because they're dangerous, but because packages that use them almost always fail to run out of zipped eggs.

    easy_install is warning because it'll install "less efficiently" into an unzipped directory instead of a zipped egg.

    In practice, I'm usually glad when the zip_safe check fails, because then if I need to dive into the source of a module it's a ton easier.