[Popcon-developers] Bug#571926: popularity-contest: popcon doesn't track usage of python modules in a consistent manner

[Stuart Prescott]

Package: popularity-contest
Version: 1.46
Severity: wishlist

Hi!

popcon currently uses the regexp:

  m{/bin/|/sbin/|/lib/.+/|^/usr/games/|\.[ah]$|\.pm$|\.php$|^/boot/System\.map-}

to detemine if the atime/ctime etc for a file should be checked in order to
decide if the package has been used recently.

This means that a python module that has no C extensions (i.e. a collection
of .py files only in /usr/share/pyshared) always shows up as being "nofiles",
whereas a python module that has a C extension and so installs .so files into
/usr/lib/pyshared/python2.X/package/ will report recent usage etc.

Given the explicit inclusion of .pm files to indicate usage of perl modules
and .php to pick up php snippets/modules/scripts/whatever, it would seem more
useful to collect python data in a similar fashion. That the data for a python
module also depends on whether or not it has a C module or not (something that
is entirely opaque to the end user!) is also a bit odd.

Perhaps add |\.py$ to that regexp?

cheers
Stuart