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Opened by asavah@asavah

importlib.metadata does not respect PYTHONPATH environment variable

This used to work with any random package using setuptools, lets say I want install a dev version of meson into a separate prefix (folder) to avoid interfering with OS one.

PYTHONPATH=/my/prefix/lib/python3.8/site-packages python3 setup.py install --prefix=/my/prefix
PYTHONPATH=/my/prefix/lib/python3.8/site-packages /my/prefix/bin/meson
/my/prefix/lib/python3.8/site-packages# ls -1
easy-install.pth
meson-0.55.3-py3.8.egg

Now this fails

PYTHONPATH=/my/prefix/lib/python3.8/site-packages /my/prefix/bin/meson
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/my/prefix/bin/meson", line 33, in <module>
    sys.exit(load_entry_point('meson==0.55.3', 'console_scripts', 'meson')())
  File "/my/prefix/bin/meson", line 22, in importlib_load_entry_point
    for entry_point in distribution(dist_name).entry_points
  File "/usr/lib/python3.8/importlib/metadata.py", line 504, in distribution
    return Distribution.from_name(distribution_name)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.8/importlib/metadata.py", line 177, in from_name
    raise PackageNotFoundError(name)
importlib.metadata.PackageNotFoundError: meson

OS: ubuntu 20.10, python 3.8.6

When making questionable "improvements" to something that existed and worked for years please make SURE you don't break expected behavior.

Edited by asavah