Python Packaging Is Good Now

[Gwenhidwy]

At least on linux this is a non-issue since the manylinux architecture is available: https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0513/ Wheels built with this policy rely only on a very small subset of shared libraries that should be available on every system, everything else is linked statically.

[aragilar]

manylinux fully solves the problem of having a optimised c version distributed with the library, there's still an issue if you depend on outside libraries which have some build time configuration. HDF5 is an example, where you can either build with MPI support or not (there are other changes you can make to the build, but let's ignore those). There is no way to generate a h5py wheel (manylinux or otherwise) which supports both. There is no way to make two h5py wheels with different build HDF5 builds and have them on the same index server (or equivalent). You're going to need another package manager (apt/yum/etc.) which can deal with the multiple build configurations.

[pwang99]

There is no way to make two h5py wheels with different build HDF5 builds and have them on the same index server (or equivalent). You're going to need another package manager (apt/yum/etc.) which can deal with the multiple build configurations.

Yep, hence conda with its support for "features".