Discovery of python modules and patchPythonScript

Help
1

Hi all,
I’m currently trying to package the django-based python application SeaHub that relies on the python modules shipped as part of the autotools-based C programs seafile-server-core and ccnet-server.

The problem here is that the python modules seafile, seaserv (provided by the seafile-server-core package) and ccnet (provided by the ccnet-server package) cannot be found by the manage.py script of seahub.

The relevant code can be found here:
As seahub is not a setup.py-based project, I just have to extract the sources and copy them to $out. Currently I try to adjust the python module path of manage.py using patchPythonScript from pkgs.python27Programs.wrapPython. But although the required modules are present in $out/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ of ccnet-server and seafile-server-core (specified in the propagatedBuildInputs) they are not found by manage.py.

The *-bindings build inputs of seahub are just my (likely unnecessary) attempts of applying toPythonPackage to the seafile-server-core and ccnet-server package.

how to reproduce:

  • nix-build '<nixpkgs>' -A seafile-server
  • ./result/seahub/manage.py

error message:

ImportError: No module named seaserv

What do I need to do for making the missing modules available to seahub?

PS: I honestly do not fully understand the wrapPython shell functions, although their source contains comments. They should be documented properly in the nixpkgs manual, first of all to make them discoverable.

2

you’re using buildPythonApplication for seahub, try buildPythonPackage.

buildPythonApplication should only be used when you’re certain you’re not going to be importing it from another package.

1 Like
3

@jonringer I’ll try that, thx. But shouldn’t patchPythonScript fix that mistake? Apparently it doesn’t as the required site-package paths are not part of the inserted patch :\

Update: using buildPythonPackage did not fix the issue

4

Also, I am quite certain that seahub is never going to be imported somewhere else.
What does have to be imported by seahub are the modules from ccnet-server and seafile-server-core.

5

I’m not entire sure what patchPythonScript does. Another thing you will want to verify is that the seahub package is installing to a site-packages directory, look at another python package to see if it’s putting things into the right directory

6

Another thing which could be going on, is that the package might not be PEP420 compliant, and they have init.py’s at the namespaces. Which breaks how python3 searches for modules

7

I suggest creating packages with buildPythonPackage so that the modules live in $out/${python.sitePackages}. Do the same for manage.py. See e.g. the Mailman module in Nixpkgs which is also Django-based python-mailman-web: turn these Djando configuration files into a make… · NixOS/nixpkgs@86f8895 · GitHub

8

As I already wrote above, it’s not the seahub modules that are not discovered but the seafile/seaserv and ccnet modules, and those are shipped with an Autotools C project.
But I tried building Seahub with buildPythonPackage and that did not resolve the issue.

As you’re the second person confusing which modules are not found, I should probably rephrase the issue description :thinking: