What is iw.eggproxy ?

iw.eggproxy is a module for apache mod_python. Its purpose is to serve as a pypi proxy.

The main idea is to mirror locally on demand. At first run it will download pypi index and build a page of links. When a software asks for a specific package, version, … it will be downloaded by iw.eggproxy, if needed. All files are eventually served by apache, as static content. iw.eggproxy just takes care of checking if it must (and can) be downloaded first.

How to use iw.eggproxy ?

You need mod_python 3.3 for apache. It will not work with previous versions.

Debian Etch users: Etch provides 3.2, so users of Etch must get the source package from “Lenny” (testing) and rebuild it with dpkg-buildpackage. Please have a look at the related section in this document to get some help.

Configuration file:

Currently its location is fixed to /etc/apache2/eggproxy.conf:

[default]
eggs_directory = /path/to/pypi
index = http://pypi.python.org/simple

# update information for files older than 24h
update_interval = 24

Apache setup for http://servername/pypi:

Alias /pypi "/path/to/pypi"
<Directory "/path/to/pypi">
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
    SetHandler mod_python
    PythonFixupHandler iw.eggproxy.apache_handler::fixup_handler
    PythonInterpreter main_interpreter
    PythonOption URLPrefix /pypi
    PythonPath "sys.path+['/path/to/iw.eggproxy']"
</Directory>

Apache must be able to write to “/path/to/pypi”! (usually Apache user is www-data). For updating proxied egg information you must add the script eggproxy_update into the crontab of this user.

mod_python update on Debian Etch:

Quick build instructions from debian “lenny” sources:

$ sudo apt-get build-dep libapache2-mod-python
$ sudo apt-get install fakeroot

Visit http://packages.debian.org/sources/lenny/libapache2-mod-python and grab the files with these extensions:

• .dsc

• .orig.tar.gz

• .diff.gz

$ wget http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/pool/main/liba/libapache2-mod-python/libapache2-mod-python_3.3.1-3.dsc
$ wget http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/pool/main/liba/libapache2-mod-python/libapache2-mod-python_3.3.1.orig.tar.gz
$ wget http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/pool/main/liba/libapache2-mod-python/libapache2-mod-python_3.3.1-3.diff.gz
$ tar xpvzf libapache2-mod-python_3.3.1.orig.tar.gz
$ cd mod_python-3.3.1/
$ gzip -dc ../libapache2-mod-python_3.3.1-3.diff.gz |patch -p1
$ chmod +x debian/rules
$ dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -b
$ cd ..

you should have the following files:

• libapache2-mod-python_3.3.1-3_i386.deb

• libapache2-mod-python-doc_3.3.1-3_all.deb

The last step is calling dpkg:

$ sudo dpkg -i libapache2-mod-python_3.3.1-3_i386.deb