On Sun, Dec 14, 2014 at 9:28 PM, Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> wrote:
>> +(define* (fix-pth #:key name inputs outputs #:allow-other-keys)
>
> What about calling it ‘rename-pth-file’, which should be more
> descriptive?  Also please add a docstring.

Agreed.

>> +  (let* ((out (assoc-ref outputs "out"))
>> +         (python (assoc-ref inputs "python"))
>> +         (site-packages (string-append out "/lib/python"
>> +                                       (get-python-version python)
>> +                                       "/site-packages"))
>> +         (easy-install-pth (string-append site-packages "/easy-install.pth"))
>> +         (new-pth (string-append site-packages "/" name ".pth")))
>> +    (if (file-exists? easy-install-pth)
>> +        (rename-file easy-install-pth new-pth))))
>
> Please use ‘when’ instead of ‘if’, and add a trailing #t, to make it
> clear that the phase succeeds.

OK

> Is PACKAGE.pth a common convention?  I mean, does Python (or
> setuptools?) actually use files called PYTHON.pth?

Yes, the basename of path configuration files with extension .pth does
not matter. The site module will load them all. Setuptools, on top of
easy-install.pth, installs a site.py file. This program adds (with
site.addsitedir) all directories in PYTHONPATH to the list of
directories to be processed by the site module.

https://docs.python.org/2/library/site.html

Before writing the path I had conflicts, e.g., between matplotlib and
cairocffi resulting in import failures. After the patch they work
nicely together.

Using NAME.pth  instead of easy-install.pth should guarantee that no
package configuration file collisions occurs between different
packages installed with setuptools, nor between two versions of the
same library.

Attached the amended patch.
Regards,
Fede