x86/Tools/versioncheck/README - platform/prebuilts/python/windows-x86 - Git at Google

 This is versioncheck 1.0, a first stab at automatic checking of versions of
 Python extension packages installed on your system.

 The basic idea is that each package contains a _checkversion.py
 somewhere, probably at the root level of the package. In addition, each
 package maintainer makes a file available on the net, through ftp or
 http, which contains the version number of the most recent distribution
 and some readable text explaining the differences with previous
 versions, where to download the package, etc.

 The checkversions.py script walks through the installed Python tree (or
 through a tree of choice), and runs each _checkversion.py script. These
 scripts retrieve the current-version file over the net, compares version
 numbers and tells the user about new versions of packages available.

 A boilerplate for the _checkversion.py file can be found here. Replace
 package name, version and the URL of the version-check file and put it in
 your distribution. In stead of a single URL you can also specify a list
 of URLs. Each of these will be checked in order until one is available,
 this is handy for distributions that live in multiple places. Put the
 primary distribution site (the most up-to-date site) before others.
 The script is executed with execfile(), not imported, and the current
 directory is the checkversion directory, so be careful with globals,
 importing, etc.

 The version-check file consists of an rfc822-style header followed by
 plaintext. The only header field checked currently is
 'Current-Version:', which should contain te current version and is
 matched against the string contained in the _checkversion.py script.
 The rest of the file is human-readable text and presented to the user if
 there is a version mismatch. It should contain at the very least a URL
 of either the current distribution or a webpage describing it.

 Pycheckversion.py is the module that does the actual checking of versions.
 It should be fine where it is, it is imported by checkversion before anything
 else is done, but if imports fail you may want to move it to somewhere
 along sys.path.

 	Jack Jansen, CWI, 23-Dec-97.
 	<jack@cwi.nl>
	This is versioncheck 1.0, a first stab at automatic checking of versions of
	Python extension packages installed on your system.

	The basic idea is that each package contains a _checkversion.py
	somewhere, probably at the root level of the package. In addition, each
	package maintainer makes a file available on the net, through ftp or
	http, which contains the version number of the most recent distribution
	and some readable text explaining the differences with previous
	versions, where to download the package, etc.

	The checkversions.py script walks through the installed Python tree (or
	through a tree of choice), and runs each _checkversion.py script. These
	scripts retrieve the current-version file over the net, compares version
	numbers and tells the user about new versions of packages available.

	A boilerplate for the _checkversion.py file can be found here. Replace
	package name, version and the URL of the version-check file and put it in
	your distribution. In stead of a single URL you can also specify a list
	of URLs. Each of these will be checked in order until one is available,
	this is handy for distributions that live in multiple places. Put the
	primary distribution site (the most up-to-date site) before others.
	The script is executed with execfile(), not imported, and the current
	directory is the checkversion directory, so be careful with globals,
	importing, etc.

	The version-check file consists of an rfc822-style header followed by
	plaintext. The only header field checked currently is
	'Current-Version:', which should contain te current version and is
	matched against the string contained in the _checkversion.py script.
	The rest of the file is human-readable text and presented to the user if
	there is a version mismatch. It should contain at the very least a URL
	of either the current distribution or a webpage describing it.

	Pycheckversion.py is the module that does the actual checking of versions.
	It should be fine where it is, it is imported by checkversion before anything
	else is done, but if imports fail you may want to move it to somewhere
	along sys.path.

	Jack Jansen, CWI, 23-Dec-97.
	<jack@cwi.nl>