[Biopython-dev] buildbot and setup.py

[Peter]

Hi all,

For the continuous integration server, it is important
to be able to run setup.py without it prompting the
user. There are (just?) two potential prompts at the
moment.

First, if running on Python 3, it asks the user to
confirm they have run 2to3 as per the README
file. This was done as a bit of a hack - perhaps
now that most of the Python code works on Py3
we can avoid this?

Second, if running without NumPy, it asks the user
if they really want to do this as it is best to install
NumPy to use all of Biopython.

For the purposes of the buildbot, I think we should
have at least one build-slave without NumPy. This
should then catch any regressions in the test suite.
Since Jython doesn't have NumPy (and so we
don't prompt about it) then maybe that would
double in this role for the test matrix ;)

Right now Tiago has solved the first prompt (about
2to3) by piping a "y\n" into stdin. I guess piping
two would solve the case of no NumPy on Py3 ;)

However, do we need an --auto or --force flag
to bypass these yes or no prompts in setup.py?

(Meanwhile I'm off to install NumPy under
Python 3 on my Linux box which will avoid
the issue for now)

Peter