Re: Should python-build-system packages have native-inputs?

[Chris Marusich]

Hartmut Goebel <address@hidden> writes:

>> the python-build-system does not cross-compile.
>
> In any case, this is a current limitation only :-)

I see. If we actually do plan on implementing some kind of
cross-compilation support for the python-build-system, then I can
understand why it makes sense to proactively put into the native-inputs
those things which might possibly need to be native-inputs when that
time comes.  Can we at least mention in the manual that the
python-build-system doesn't currently cross-compile, so native-inputs
will be treated the same as inputs for now, but we still recommend
putting the "build-only dependencies" in native-inputs in order to
future-proof our package definitions?  That alone would have helped
clarify things for me when I was starting out.

After reading about Python extension modules a little more, it seems
that they can in fact be cross-compiled.  I didn't look into Python 2,
and I don't know what it would take to enable such cross-compilation in
the python-build-system.

For those following along, here are some related links.

An explanation of Python extension modules:
https://docs.python.org/3/extending/building.html#distributing-your-extension-modules

Some Python open bugs that mention cross-compilation:
https://bugs.python.org/issue?%40columns=id%2Cactivity%2Ctitle%2Ccreator%2Cassignee%2Cstatus&%40sort=-activity&%40group=priority&%40filter=status&status=-1%2C1%2C3&%40search_text=cross-compile&submit=search+in+open+issues

-- 
Chris

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