spelled sensibly in a config file.

Fills in question marks in help

Reads scripts in from files rather than strings

Adds RPM 2 compatibility mode (untested). Use of this mode requires that
--bdist-base be specified because bdist_rpm has no way of detecting where
RPM wants to find spec files and source files. An unmodified RedHat 5.0
system would require '--bdist-base=/usr/src/RedHat'. (You would also have
to be root.) If the rpmrc file has been modified to allow RPMs to be built
by normal users then --build-base would need to be changed accordingly.

Formats the changelog.

GPW: tweaked formatting, added some editorial comments.

and added 'ensure_dirname()'.

command class, so they're now in the Command base class.

(and in order to generate a more sensible error message cleanly).

overhaul last night.

  support the forthcoming Cygwin/Mingw32 GCC-on-Windows patch.
Standardized CVS id line.

before the real release, but I want to make it clear that a major new
release is on the way).

extraneous debug prints).

do so if DEBUG is true.

'_check_*()' helpers.

prep/build/etc. scripts, doc files, dependency info) from a config file
rather than the dedicated "package_info" file.  (The idea is that
developers will provide RPM-specific info in the "[bdist_rpm]" section of
setup.cfg, but of course it could also be supplied in the other config
files, on the command line, or in the setup script -- or any mix of the
above.)

Major changes:
  * added a boatload of options to 'user_options' and
    'initialize_options()': 'distribution_name', 'group', 'release', ...
  * added 'finalize_package_data()', which takes the place of
    '_get_package_data()' -- except it's called from 'finalize_options()',
    not 'run()', so we have everything figured out before we actually run
    the command
  * added 'ensure_string()', 'ensure_string_list()', 'ensure_filename()';
    these take the place of '_check_string()' and friends.  (These actually
    look like really useful type-checking methods that could come in handy
    all over the Distutils; should consider moving them up to Command and
    using them in other command classes' 'finalize_options()' method for
    error-checking).
  * various cleanup, commentary, and adaptation to the new way of
    storing RPM info in '_make_spec_file()'

Added 'get_archive_files()' so outsiders can get their hands on that list.

need to be reinitialized -- fixed.

Ensure 'make_archive()' method returns archive filename.

  * added "--bdist-base" option to parameterize where we build
    the RPM (comes from "bdist" by default: "build/bdist.<plat>")
  * simplified/cleaned up some code in 'run()' in the process of
    removing (most) hard-coded directory names
  * if "--spec-only", drop spec file in "dist" rather than "redhat"
    (directory name still hard-coded, though)
  * use 'reinitialize_command()' to fetch the "sdist" object to
    tweak before running "sdist" command
  * use 'self.copy_file()' method rather than 'copy_file()' function
  * cosmetic tweaks to comments, error messages

  * help strings start with lowercase
  * added affirmative version of '--no-clean' and '--no-rpm-opt-flags',
    which are the default (thus the attributes that correspond to
    the options are now 'clean' and 'use_rpm_opt_flags')

Also changed it so it doesn't barf if the path is already in native format
  (ie. contains os.sep).

"from distutils.core import" it.

setup script) to be a list of Extension instances, rather than a list of of
(ext_name, build_info) tuples.  This is mostly a simplification, but
'check_extension_list()' got a lot more complicated because of the need to
convert the old-style tuples to Extension instances.

Temporarily dropped support for defining/undefining macros in the
'extensions' list -- I want to change the interface, but haven't yet made
the required changes in CCompiler and friends to support this nicely.

Also neatened up the code that merges 'extra_compile_flags' and the CFLAGS
environment variable.

the old (ext_name, build_info) tuple.

  just to get a little exception class.
No more string-based exceptions.

or LinkError (exception classes defined in ccompiler.py).

Added 'reinitialize_command()' -- lets us "push" option values in
  a controlled, safe way; this is a small change to the code, but
  a big change to the Distutils philosophy of passing option values
  around.  The preferred mode is still definitely to "pull" options
  from another command (eg. "install" fetches the base build directory
  from "build"), but it is now feasible to "push" options onto another
  command, when you know what's best for it.  One possible application
  will be a "config" command, which pokes around the system and pushes
  values (eg. include and library directories) onto the "build" command.
Added 'dump_option_dicts()' method (for debugging output).

Added a warning for 'bdist_base' directory.

  * Command method 'find_peer()' -> 'get_finalized_command()'
  * Command method 'run_peer()' -> 'run_command()'
Also deleted the 'get_command_option()' method from Command, and
  fixed the one place where it was used (in "bdist_dumb").

directories after all is said and done, so we don't accidentally include
those files in the source distribution.

(This is the quick and easy way to fix this; Andrew says: "Changing
findall() looked like it was going to be messy, so I tried this instead.
The only problem is that redundant directory traversals are being done,
walking through build/ only to throw out all the files found at the end.").