enable source distribution packaging

[otron]

• Run python setup.py sdist to generate a source distribution package
• Omits the newline at the end of the version number generated by
  genversion.sh

[esindril]

Hi @otron,

Thanks for your pull request. The XRootD Python bindings are now distributed with the main XRootD (https://github.com/xrootd/xrootd) and the code has been moved to /xrootd/bindings/python.

Therefore, could you make another pull request against the main xrootd project and I will merge it.
I believe the version issue is gone in the xrootd head.

Thanks,
Elvin

[otron]

Hello @esindril, thanks for replying.

It seems like the python bindings are installed along with XrootD itself when building & installing from source. Is this correct?
Because considering that you're using cmake to generate the python bindings' setup.py file, it'd be difficult to get a source distribution package to work.

[esindril]

Yes, indeed we use cmake to generate the setup.py file and the python bindings are installed along with XRootD itself. To get the the sdist pkg to work one can go to the build directory and after compiling XRootD do: python setup.py sdist in ../xrootd/build/bindings/python. This will generate the sdist pkg. Threrefore, the MANIFEST part of your pull is still useful.

[otron]

But the setup.py file is generated with installation specific paths to the various XRD resources (e.g. xrdlibdir = '/path/to/xrootd_src/build/src'. This won't work on systems that have not also built the XrootD source in the very same directory.
Before generating and uploading the source distribution you'd have to manually alter setup.py to look for environment variables instead.

[esindril]

Closing this one, moved the discussion to the main xrootd project list.