Hi, I've been busily converting some of my smaller servers to eggs, and I've hit a problem with the develop command. From setuptools 0.5a9 onwards the develop command barfs with the following traceback: $ python2.4 setup.py develop --help Traceback (most recent call last): File "setup.py", line 33, in ? install_requires = [ File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/setuptools-0.5a10-py2.4.egg/setuptools/__init__.py", line 51, in setup File "/usr/lib/python2.4/distutils/core.py", line 135, in setup ok = dist.parse_command_line() File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/setuptools-0.5a10-py2.4.egg/setuptools/dist.py", line 107, in parse_command_line File "/usr/lib/python2.4/distutils/dist.py", line 432, in parse_command_line args = self._parse_command_opts(parser, args) File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/setuptools-0.5a10-py2.4.egg/setuptools/dist.py", line 385, in _parse_command_opts File "/usr/lib/python2.4/distutils/dist.py", line 530, in _parse_command_opts parser.set_negative_aliases(negative_opt) File "/usr/lib/python2.4/distutils/fancy_getopt.py", line 143, in set_negative_aliases self._check_alias_dict(negative_alias, "negative alias") File "/usr/lib/python2.4/distutils/fancy_getopt.py", line 125, in _check_alias_dict raise DistutilsGetoptError, \ distutils.errors.DistutilsGetoptError: invalid negative alias 'always-unzip': option 'always-unzip' not defined Looking at commands/develop.py I notice that it's the only command which sets 'command_consumes_arguments = False', and it also doesn't override the negative_opt dict. I tried setting 'negative_opt = {}' and it started working again. So this patch "fixes" the issue though I don't know the internals of distutils/setuptools to tell you exactly why: --- /tmp/setuptools-0.5a10/setuptools/command/develop.py 2005-07-06 19:15:52.000000000 +0100 +++ setuptools/command/develop.py 2005-07-12 11:50:04.000000000 +0100 @@ -21,6 +21,8 @@ boolean_options = [ 'multi-version', 'exclude-scripts', 'always-copy', 'uninstall' ] + + negative_opt = {} command_consumes_arguments = False # override base Is anyone else seeing this problem? I've reproduced it on a debian linux box and my apple laptop. cheers, Michael