Non-python dependencies

[bbaassssiiee]

Does the pipfile manage the required C libraries and platform specific packages too?

[FFX01]

@bbaassssiiee
I couldn't find any information in the README saying yes or no on that. I think it would be interesting to consider adding a system dependencies section to the pipfile at some point. For instance, if you're running a web application that converts mp4s to webm format it would be nice to specify ffmpeg as a dependency. Though, I'm not sure if the installation of system dependencies could be, or even should be, automatic. There's no good way for pip to know if you use pacman or apt for package management. What if a specific system library is not available from your package repository?

If we could specify system dependencies in a pipfile, I think it would be a good idea to simply have pip warn the developer about required system dependencies and maybe give them a link to find more information.

[luzfcb]

For beginners, installing python packages with dependencies in C has always been a nightmare, because they do not know what to do when errors appear.
In cookiecutter-django, the simplest way that I found to make things a bit easier for beginners was to create a, for example, "requiremenst.apt" file (This helps me document which build dependencies I needed.)
, and a simple helper script to parse .apt file and install the packages on Ubuntu.

System dependencies also have the problem of lack of standardization between operating system versions and between operating systems.

Probably to make a Hitchtest installation a bit simpler, @crdoconnor create the unixpackage .

UnixPackage is a UNIX independent way of installing packages. Specify the Ubuntu package name (e.g. libpq-dev), and it will install the equivalent on your system (e.g. postgresql-libs on Arch).

Package names and their equivalents are downloaded from https://github.com/unixpackage/unixpackage.github.io via the generated website:

Example : http://unixpackage.github.io/libtiff-dev.json

These files are cached in the ~/.unixpackage directory.

[bbaassssiiee]

It sounds like pipfile is yet another package manager for python, I mean setuptools, pip, easy_install, do we need more? Yes, we do, because of the auxiliary packages, but that is what Conda/Anaconda was designed for. And that is mature already.
https://docs.continuum.io/anaconda/
http://conda.pydata.org/docs/index.html

[dpausp]

@bbaassssiiee I use the Nix Package Manager https://nixos.org/nix/ for Python and non-Python dependencies. Works great.

[kennethreitz]

This project has the same scope as requirements.txt.

[halfdanrump]

It would be nice to see pipenv address the issue of third-party packages though. It's a very common issue that @bbaassssiiee ran into.

[LeonarddeR]

Has there been any progress on this subject?

Personally, I'd really love an option that helps me using non-Python git repositories from pipfiles.

[bbaassssiiee]

Use conda.io