[Distutils] setuptools in a cross-compilation packaging environment

[Brian Zhou]

Hi all,

I am the package maintainer of python and a couple of python packages for 
the nslu2 optware platform, see http://www.nslu2-linux.org and 
http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/unslung/cross/

There were some distutils features I really appreciate:

1) setup.py install --prefix
This allows us to install into a separate staging area.

2) setup.cfg [build_scripts] executable option

3) setup.cfg [build_ext] include-dirs, library-dirs and rpath options

The new setuptools is all nice and easy for end user, but as a package 
maintainer, I'd like to have the option of building a binary package without 
all the dependencies. Is it possible? How about the above distutils 
features, are there any equivalent?

Thanks in advance for any advice,

-Brian Zhou