Write all metadata used to _release.py

Enables running without installing.
Removes use of importlib.metadata.

.github/workflows/branch-man.yml

@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ jobs:
 
       - name: Build man pages
         run: |
+            python3 -m hatchling build --hooks-only
             hatch -e doc run locale
             git commit -a -m "Update doc translation catalogs"
             hatch -e doc run man

.github/workflows/build.yml

@@ -66,7 +66,9 @@ jobs:
           while ! test -S /var/run/clamav/clamd.ctl; do printf "."; sleep 1; done
 
       - name: Run tests
-        run: python -m tox -e py
+        run: |
+            python -m hatchling build --hooks-only
+            python -m tox -e py
 
       - name: Report to coveralls
         run: coveralls

.github/workflows/publish-pages.yml

@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ jobs:
 
       - name: Build
         run: |
+            python3 -m hatchling build --hooks-only
             hatch -e doc run code
             hatch -e doc run html
 

doc/development.md

@@ -12,18 +12,22 @@ participate in the community, you should rather look into
 Requirements
 ------------
 
+hatchling and hatch-vcs are used to create the application metadata and build
+distribution packages.
+
 These requirements are in addition to the dependencies covered in the
 [installation instructions](install.txt).
 
-Developers will likely want to install hatch.
+Developers may wish to install hatch or tox to manage running tests.
 
-To run the copy of linkchecker in the local repository:
+To run the copy of linkchecker in the local repository first create the
+metadata in linkcheck/_release.py:
 
-    hatch env remove
-    hatch run linkchecker
+    hatchling build -t sdist --hooks-only
 
-If LinkChecker is already installed, `python -m linkcheck` will work, but the
-metadata of the installed version will be used to e.g. provide the version number.
+Then linkchecker can be run with:
+
+    python -m linkcheck
 
 Workflows using GitHub Actions are used to check every PR, each commit and
 regularly the repository HEAD. Developers are able to perform these checks
@@ -62,8 +66,7 @@ Release process
    if so create a pull request using the GitHub workflow:
    "Create a branch with updated man pages and application translations"
 
-2. edit `changelog.txt` and `upgrading.txt`, and if applicable the
-   copyright dates in `linkcheck/configuration/__init__.py`
+2. edit `changelog.txt` and `upgrading.txt`
 
 3. confirm tests have passed
 

linkcheck/configuration/__init__.py

@@ -24,33 +24,28 @@ import urllib.parse
 import shutil
 import socket
 
-try:
-    from importlib.metadata import distribution
-except ImportError:
-    # Python 3.7
-    from importlib_metadata import distribution
-
-from .. import log, LOG_CHECK, COMMAND_NAME, PACKAGE_NAME, fileutil
+from .. import log, LOG_CHECK, PACKAGE_NAME, fileutil
 from . import confparse
 
-linkchecker_distribution = distribution(COMMAND_NAME)
-Version = linkchecker_distribution.metadata["Version"]
 try:
     from .. import _release
 except ImportError:
-    ReleaseDate = "unknown"
-else:
-    ReleaseDate = _release.__release_date__
-AppName = linkchecker_distribution.metadata["Name"]
+    raise SystemExit('Run "hatchling build --hooks-only" first')
+
+Version = _release.__version__
+ReleaseDate = _release.__release_date__
+CopyrightYear = _release.__copyright_year__
+AppName = _release.__app_name__
 App = AppName + " " + Version
-Author = linkchecker_distribution.metadata["Author"]
+Author = _release.__author__
 HtmlAuthor = Author.replace(' ', ' ')
-Copyright = "Copyright (C) 2000-2016 Bastian Kleineidam, 2010-2022 " + Author
-HtmlCopyright = ("Copyright © 2000-2016 Bastian Kleineidam, 2010-2022 "
-                 + HtmlAuthor)
+Copyright = f"Copyright (C) 2000-2016 Bastian Kleineidam, 2010-{CopyrightYear} {Author}"
+HtmlCopyright = (
+    "Copyright © 2000-2016 Bastian Kleineidam, "
+    f"2010-{CopyrightYear} {HtmlAuthor}")
 HtmlAppInfo = App + ", " + HtmlCopyright
-Url = linkchecker_distribution.metadata["Project-URL"].split(", ")[1]
-SupportUrl = "https://github.com/linkchecker/linkchecker/issues"
+Url = _release.__url__
+SupportUrl = _release.__support_url__
 UserAgent = "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; %s/%s; +%s)" % (AppName, Version, Url)
 Freeware = (
     AppName

pyproject.toml

@@ -20,7 +20,6 @@ classifiers = [
 requires-python = ">=3.7"
 
 dependencies = [
-    "importlib_metadata;python_version<'3.8'",
     "requests >= 2.4",
     "dnspython >= 2.0",
     "beautifulsoup4 >= 4.8.1",

tools/hatch_build.py

@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ class CustomBuildHook(BuildHookInterface):
 
     def initialize(self, version, build_data):
         cp = None
-        committer_date = "unknown"
+        committer_date = committer_year = "unknown"
         try:
             cp = subprocess.run(["git", "log", "-n 1", "HEAD", "--format=%cs"],
                                 capture_output=True, text=True)
@@ -47,9 +47,17 @@ class CustomBuildHook(BuildHookInterface):
         else:
             if cp and cp.stdout:
                 committer_date = cp.stdout.strip()
+                committer_year = committer_date[:4]
 
-        Path(*RELEASE_PY).write_text(
-            f"__release_date__ = \"{committer_date}\"\n")
+        Path(*RELEASE_PY).write_text(f"""\
+__app_name__ = "{self.metadata.core.raw_name}"
+__version__ = "{self.metadata.version}"
+__release_date__ = "{committer_date}"
+__copyright_year__ = "{committer_year}"
+__author__ = "{self.metadata.core.authors[0]['name']}"
+__url__ = "{self.metadata.core.urls["Homepage"]}"
+__support_url__ = "{self.metadata.core.urls["Bug Tracker"]}"
+""")
 
         if COMPILE_TRANSLATIONS:
             for po in Path("po").glob("*.po"):