[Distutils] setuptools requiring itself to run... thus not running

[Ben Bangert]

A user of one of my webapps reported that after running upgrade one  
night, setuptools was no longer functioning properly. Apparently it  
somehow got installed in multi-version mode, requiring pkg_resources  
to be imported *before* you could use setuptools. Which of course  
leaves it in the somewhat amusing state that it needs to import  
pkg_resources before it can import pkg_resources....

Here's the messages he received during the install:

molokai:/usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages # python /in/hellahella/ 
ez_setup.py -U setuptools
Downloading http://cheeseshop.python.org/packages/2.4/s/setuptools/ 
setuptools-0.6a9-py2.4.egg
Searching for setuptools
Reading http://www.python.org/pypi/setuptools/
Reading http://peak.telecommunity.com/DevCenter/setuptools
Best match: setuptools 0.6a9
Downloading http://cheeseshop.python.org/packages/2.4/s/setuptools/ 
setuptools-0.6a9-py2.4.egg#md5=8f6e01fc12fb1cd006dc0d6c04327ec1
Processing setuptools-0.6a9-py2.4.egg
creating /usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/setuptools-0.6a9-py2.4.egg
Extracting setuptools-0.6a9-py2.4.egg to /usr/lib64/python2.4/site- 
packages
Installing easy_install script to /usr/bin

Installed /usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/setuptools-0.6a9-py2.4.egg

Because this distribution was installed --multi-version or --install- 
dir,
before you can import modules from this package in an application, you
will need to 'import pkg_resources' and then use a 'require()' call
similar to one of these examples, in order to select the desired  
version:

     pkg_resources.require("setuptools")  # latest installed version
     pkg_resources.require("setuptools==0.6a9")  # this exact version
     pkg_resources.require("setuptools>=0.6a9")  # this version or  
higher

Processing dependencies for setuptools
Processing setuptools-0.6a9-py2.4.egg
removing '/usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/setuptools-0.6a9- 
py2.4.egg' (and everything under it)
creating /usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/setuptools-0.6a9-py2.4.egg
Extracting setuptools-0.6a9-py2.4.egg to /usr/lib64/python2.4/site- 
packages
Installing easy_install script to /usr/bin

Installed /usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/setuptools-0.6a9-py2.4.egg

Because this distribution was installed --multi-version or --install- 
dir,
before you can import modules from this package in an application, you
will need to 'import pkg_resources' and then use a 'require()' call
similar to one of these examples, in order to select the desired  
version:

     pkg_resources.require("setuptools")  # latest installed version
     pkg_resources.require("setuptools==0.6a9")  # this exact version
     pkg_resources.require("setuptools>=0.6a9")  # this version or  
higher

Processing dependencies for setuptools==0.6a9
Searching for setuptools
Reading http://www.python.org/pypi/setuptools/
Reading http://peak.telecommunity.com/DevCenter/setuptools

Best match: setuptools 0.6a9
Processing setuptools-0.6a9-py2.4.egg
Installing easy_install script to /usr/bin

Using /usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/setuptools-0.6a9-py2.4.egg

Because this distribution was installed --multi-version or --install- 
dir,
before you can import modules from this package in an application, you
will need to 'import pkg_resources' and then use a 'require()' call
similar to one of these examples, in order to select the desired  
version:

     pkg_resources.require("setuptools")  # latest installed version
     pkg_resources.require("setuptools==0.6a9")  # this exact version
     pkg_resources.require("setuptools>=0.6a9")  # this version or  
higher

Processing dependencies for setuptools


Thanks,
Ben