`packages_distributions` relies on setuptools implementation detail

This is a follow-up to https://github.com/python/importlib_metadata/issues/402.

packages_distributions reads top_level.txt to determine the names. This file isn't part of any PEP and to my knowledge only implemented by setuptools, as a historical artifact from eggs. This leads users to believe that build backends not supporting this function have a bug (https://github.com/astral-sh/uv/issues/16423).

Would it be possible to update the documentation to accurately reflect that this is not a problem with some PEP 660 build backends not supplying top-level names, but that this function is generally not expected to work with editable installs at all, with the historical exception of setuptools?

(This may change with PEP 794)

https://github.com/python/importlib_metadata/blob/95ecf2aa573a68d4624506f801ca70992a337f41/importlib_metadata/__init__.py#L1133-L1134

Commencez par lire la documentation de packages_distributions et la section liée de importlib_metadata/init.py. Mettez à jour la documentation pour expliquer que les installations modifiables ne sont généralement pas censées fournir de noms de niveau supérieur, setuptools constituant l’exception historique, tout en mentionnant l’impact futur possible de PEP 794.