>> I don't really think the "invalid PEP 376" issue is a problem: PEP
>> 376 describes the metadata for installed distributions; it has
>> nothing to say about built metadata for a distribution which has not
>> yet been installed.
> The problem is that develop is a kind of install.

Right, I was simply referring to "build_distinfo" leaving it
empty/missing; I'd want "develop" to add a (very short) RECORD file as
specified below.

>> For purposes of the develop command, if a pth file is used to
>> implement develop, then ideally when develop is run a RECORD file
>> would be added containing only the path to that pth file, as thats
>> the only file that has actually been installed
> Yeah!
> 
>> (and the only one that should be removed if the develop-installed
>> package is uninstalled).
> Are you saying that such a RECORD file would allow any installer compatible with PEP 376 to undo a develop install?  Clever!

Yeah, that's the idea. I don't see any actual use case for having all of
the Python modules etc included in the RECORD file for a
develop-install, because they haven't been installed anywhere: what we
really want to know is "what has been placed in the installation
location that we need to keep track of."?