Hi, Buildout and system packages are apparently hard. Buildout 1.5.x tries hard to get it working, but I cannot get it to work (reliably), for instance. Perhaps the problem is that we're trying too hard. Both buildout 1.5.x and the osc.recipe.sysegg recipe that I'm using on 1.4.x are trying to look up packages and trying to include them in the path. What you normally want is just to use the system's PIL and mapnik and numpy. All stuff that you really don't want to build from source. So you assume it is installed with a clicky-clicky installer on windows and with apt-get on ubuntu. Why not use this assumption? Add an "assumed-available" option to buildout that lists the eggs that are assumed to be available locally? No need to actually search them (which is the thing that breaks 1.5.x for me). Just make sure the regular python path is in place as the last item in sys.path. Possible addition: allow a dotted path as a second parameter after the "assumed-available" eggs: buildout tries to import that path to check the availability of the egg that's assumed to be available. So: if you need system eggs, you won't run buildout without system paths. Only thing left is to tell buildout that certain eggs are available locally so that it doesn't search for it. Just assume they're there and leave it at that. Reinout -- Reinout van Rees http://reinout.vanrees.org/ reinout@vanrees.org http://www.nelen-schuurmans.nl/ "If you're not sure what to do, make something. -- Paul Graham"