Are there any disadvantages about using eggs through easy-install
compared to the "traditional" packages/modules/libs?
views:
213answers:
2One (potential) disadvantage is that eggs are zipped by default unless zip_safe=False
is set in their setup()
function in setup.py
. If an egg is zipped, you can't get at the files in it (without unzipping it, obviously). If the module itself uses non-source files (such as templates) it will probably specify zip_safe=False
, but another consequence is that you cannot effectively step into zipped modules using pdb
, the Python debugger. That is, you can, but you won't be able to see the source or navigate properly.
Using eggs does cause a long sys.path
, which has to be searched and when it's really long that search can take a while. Only when you get a hundred entries or so is this going to be a problem (but installing a hundred eggs via easy_install is certainly possible).