Question

I have a server which executes Python scripts from a certain directory path. Incidently this path is a check-out from the SVN trunk version of the scripts. However, I get the feeling that this isn’t the right way to provide and update scripts for a server.

Do you suggest other approaches? (compile, copy, package, ant etc.)
In the end a web server will execute some Python script with parameters. How do I do the update process?

Also, I have trouble deciding what is best to handle updated versions which only work for new projects on the server. Therefore, if I update the Python scripts, but only newly created web jobs will know how to handle that. I “delivery” to one of many directories which keep track of versions and the server picks the right one?!

EDIT: I webserver is basically an interface that runs some data analysis. That analysis is the actual scripts that take some parameters and mingle data. I don’t really change the web interface. I only need to update the data scripts stored on webserver. Indeed, in some advanced version the web server should also pick the right version of my data scripts. However, at the moment I have no idea which would be the easiest way.

Answer 1

The canonical way of distributing Python code/functionality is by using a PyPi compliant package manager.

A list of available PyPi implementations on python.org:

http://wiki.python.org/moin/PyPiImplementations

• Instructions on setting up and using EggBasket:
  http://chrisarndt.de/projects/eggbasket/#installation

• Instructions on installing ChiShop:
  http://justcramer.com/2011/04/04/setting-up-your-own-pypi-server/

Note that for this to work you need to distribute your code as “Eggs”; you can find out how to do this here: http://peak.telecommunity.com/DevCenter/setuptools

A great blog post on the usage of eggs and the different parts in packaging: http://mxm-mad-science.blogspot.com/2008/02/python-eggs-simple-introduction.html