# Packaging and python-for-android

**URL:** <https://discuss.python.org/t/packaging-and-python-for-android/2036>\
**Category:** Packaging\
**Created:** [July 25, 2019, 5:34pm UTC](https://discuss.python.org/t/packaging-and-python-for-android/2036 "2019-07-25T17:34:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 15

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**Author:** ![anon5950365](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c5a1d2/32.png) [@anon5950365](https://discuss.python.org/u/anon5950365)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2019, 9:41pm UTC](https://discuss.python.org/t/packaging-and-python-for-android/2036/15 "2019-08-17T21:41:28Z")

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> [@pf\_moore](#):
>
> Going back to “installing via wheel”, in that case what we need is _not_ “portable” wheels.

Ah interesting, that explains a lot to me actually. Are these intermediary non-portable wheels guaranteed to exist afterwards for anything installed via a modern pip, even if it uses something other than setuptools? (Like something else commonly specified via pyproject.toml as build system, I’m not up-to-date on other existing alternatives)

Because if these non-portable wheels always exist after first install maybe that could solve build isolation not working for p4a: I’m pretty sure our patching is needed only for building these wheels in the first place, so if pip doesn’t rebuild them from scratch then it could just work. Hence I’m then wondering: 1. are these wheels stored in the site-packages or somewhere else? 2. does pip already do wheel caching and will reuse them if they’re in the right spot? If yes I suspect if we set the paths right build isolation _could_ actually work already. In that case my make-disabled-build-isolation-work-better idea could be entirely unnecessary - only if I am guessing right of course

> [@pf\_moore](#):
>
> I hope this makes things clearer. Sadly, I suspect it won’t.

It did actually for me at least 🙂🙂 thanks a lot for the explanations and your patience, this all sounds very helpful

> [@pmp-p](#):
>
> Why not starting with an official and universal repl + a pip command on android that can install prebuilt to first let people consider their needs and what is (not) working ?

Sorry I don’t fully follow where this particular idea is heading, what problem are you trying to help us solve?

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