package type = pip needs documentation

[mkoeppe]

There are now several packages where build/pkgs/PACKAGE/type is "pip".

Is there any documentation on this?

Some related tickets:

• #20218: Use pip to install Python dependencies
• #19213: For packages listed in build/pkgs/piprules, allow 'sage --optional' to list them
• #19680: Add mock, pytest, tox, virtualenv optional packages

Discussions:

• ​https://groups.google.com/d/topic/sage-devel/gRxr36XAR6I/discussion

[jdemeyer]

I don't know if everybody agrees to "officially" support the pip type packages. It was mainly meant as stopgap for some disappearing old-style packages.

[jdemeyer]

Also, shouldn't the way in which a package is installed (traditional way vs. pip way) be orthogonal to whether a package is considered standard, optional, or experimental?

Certainly not standard since we need to ship the sources of standard packages with Sage. They aren't really optional nor experimental either. I see it as just a shortcut to ./sage --pip install PKG.

[vbraun]

The pip-type package could be enhanced to use a mirrored tarball if there is one, then we could also use it for standard packages. Though really the benefit seems pretty small compared to putting pip install in the spkg-install.

[mkoeppe]

Replying to jdemeyer:

I don't know if everybody agrees to "officially" support the pip type packages. It was mainly meant as stopgap for some disappearing old-style packages.

"Official" or not, documentation is better than no documentation, no?

[mkoeppe]

Replying to jdemeyer:

Description modified

Let me ask again my question which you removed from the description above:

I tried to add a package of this type for pypolymake (for #20892), but adding the file build/pkgs/pypolymake/type does not seem to enable "sage -i pypolymake". What am I missing?

[mkoeppe]

#29287 is adding documentation

[slelievre]

Fixed by #29287.