directly printing to stdout.  This was a bit more work than it sounds like
it should have been:
  * turned 'select_pattern()' and 'exclude_pattern()' from functions into
    methods, so they can refer to 'self' to access the method
  * commented out the *other* 'exclude_pattern()' method, which appears
    to be vestigial code that was never cleaned up when the
    'exclude_pattern()' function was created
  * changed the one use of the old 'exclude_pattern()' method to use the
    new 'exclude_pattern()' (same behaviour, slightly different args)
  * some code and docstring reformatting
  * and, of course, changed all the debugging prints to 'debug_print()' calls
Added/tweaked some regular ('self.announce()') output for better runtime
  feedback.

values that "--foo" can take for various commands: eg. what formats for
"sdist" and "bdist", what compilers for "build_ext" and "build_clib".

I have *not* reviewed this patch; I'm checking it in as-is because it also
fixes a paper-bag-over-head bug in bdist.py, and because I won't have
time to review it properly for several days: so someone else can
test it for me, instead!

and call it "distutils.cfg" instead of "pydistutils.cfg" (personal
config files are still ".pydistutils.cfg" or "pydistutils.cfg", though).

Look for personal config file in /home/greg on Windows, too: users will have
to set /home/greg to use this, so it's not something that many people will
use.  But if python-dev comes up with the "right way" to divine a
home directory on Windows, we can use that to set /home/greg and poof! --
personal Distutils config files on Windows.

one doesn't *do* anything by default; it's just there as a conduit for data
(eg. include dirs, libraries) from the user to the "build" commands.
However, it provides a couple of Autoconf-ish methods ('try_compile()',
'try_link()', 'try_run()') that derived, per-distribution "config" commands
can use to poke around the target system and see what's available.

Initial experimenst with mxDateTime indicate that higher-level methods are
necessary: analogs of Autoconf's AC_CHECK_HEADER, AC_CHECK_LIB will be
needed too (and that's just to probe the C/C++ system: how to probe the
Python system is wide open, and someday we'll have to worry about probing a
Java system too).

command being reinitialized to false.

Half-fixed RPM 2 compatibility:added 'rpm_base' option, which must be set
  (to eg. /usr/src/redhat on a stock Red Hat system) if rpm2_mode is on.
  Still not quite working, though.

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.