At work we have a package (MYSQL-python) which was mistakenly installed with easy_install as a zip archive. I'd like to reinstall as a non-zipped directory-based install.

To guarantee that I get compile and link flags right I've been trying to experiment in my own site-packages directory but continue to be thwarted by the presence of the centrally installed zip archive version. For instance, if I execute this:

export PYTHONPATH=$HOME/local/lib/python2.4/site-packages easy_install --prefix=$HOME/local -Z -U MYSQL-python

it executes very quickly, with no obvious attempts to compile or link anything. When I look at the easy-install.pth file in my site-packages directory I find that all it did was drop in a reference to the centrally installed zip archive version of the package! That's not what I wanted at all.

How can I tell easy_install to ignore that centrally installed version? Failing that, is it okay to simply unzip the package we have provided in the end it has the same name?

Thanks,