Revisit displaying setuptools in `pip freeze`?

[asottile]

Given the frustration with setuptools 34 is it perhaps a good time to reconsider the display of setuptools in pip freeze? At least at $work, it is a strong suggestion to pin everything in applications (you can see our full set of tooling here), even setuptools / pip / wheel for repeatable builds -- perhaps setuptools and its new dependencies should be included as well (without needing our own implementation of pip freeze which includes them).

[Ivoz]

Is pip freeze --all what you're looking for?

[asottile]

I'm suggesting that setuptools be excluded from the non---all output.

[Ivoz]

I don't think in a general case, setuptools deserves a special case over the other items there (pip, wheel, distribute), so I'd equivocate that to suggesting that the--all option be removed together and be made the default.

[xavfernandez]

pip list already displays setuptools by default.

[pradyunsg]

Given that post-PEP 517, we're gonna have no special casing for setuptools or even wheel, I'm a +1 to @Ivoz's suggestion, if it's not implemented yet.

[pradyunsg]

I'm gonna assign this to myself but if anyone wants to try their hand at this before I get too, you're more than welcome to do so.

[asottile]

I've been suggesting pip freeze --all for as long as I can remember now -- maybe we should make that the default?