Having a Python package install itself under a different name
- by cool-RR
I'm developing a package called garlicsim. (Website.) The package is intended for Python 2.X, but I am also offerring Python 3 support on a different fork called garlicsim_py3.(1)
So both of these packages live side by side on PyPI, and Python 3 users install garlicsim_py3, and Python 2 users install garlicsim.
The problem is: When third party modules want to use garlicsim, they should have one package name to refer to, not two. Sure, they can do something like this:
try:
import garlicsim
except ImportError:
import garlicsim_py3 as garlicsim
But I would prefer not to make the developers of these modules do this.
Is there a way that garlicsim_py3 will install itself under the alias garlicsim? What I want is for a Python 3 user to be able to import garlicsim and refer to the module all the time as garlicsim, but that it will really be garlicsim_py3.
I know that the Distribute project does something like this: They make it so you can import setuptools and it will be redirected into their code. I have no idea how they do it.
Any ideas?
(1) I've reached the decision to support Python 3 on a fork instead of in the same code base; It's important for me that the code base will be clean, and I would really not want to introduce compatibilty hacks.
