Call meson using python -m meson

Feature Request I would like to call meson using

python -m meson <args>

docs: __main__.py Adding a simple __main__.py would solve this issue. But I noticed that the module name mesonbuild rather meson is there a particular reason why it is named so?

Use Case

I am on Appveyor and I would like to meson there using their python because I am building something which requires the python header, so I could easily shift between x86 and x64 python version using direct path instead of path manipulation. I would simply call it using direct path rather than path manipulation.

Also, this would be so helpful, if I run it inside a python scipt and I could get the python executable using

import sys
print(sys.executable)

So, I could simply call it using the path recieved. Now, I find a __main__.py in repo, but why is it in root directory rather than inside mesonbuild directory?

The solution

Copy the meson.py (with slight edit) inside the mesonbuild(should be meson?) as __main__.py and it is fixed.

[eli-schwartz]

@naveen521kk,

You can currently do this via python -m mesonbuild.mesonmain.

The __main__.py file is intended merely to make this usable via python -m zipapp /path/to/meson-checkout to create a single-file executable out of the box. Although I don’t know that it’s doing a great job of it. 😮

[eli-schwartz]

The “executables” created by Setuptools are just Python scripts (at least on non-Windows). You can do /path/to/somepython3 /path/to/meson <args> and it should work. I just tested it with a different program in a virtualenv and it seemed to work.

The python script merely imports mesonbuild and calls the entrypoint main function. So I don’t see how this could possibly work… unless multiple python versions each have mesonbuild installed to site-packages…