[Distutils] Double-click install for eggs on Windows

Phillip J. Eby pje at telecommunity.com
Sat Mar 11 01:55:35 CET 2006


Just FYI, if you want to make double-clicking .egg files automatically 
install them with EasyInstall, you can do it by putting the following 
entries in the Windows registry (Python 2.3 example shown):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.egg]
@="Python.Egg"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Python.Egg]
"EditFlags"=dword:00000000
"BrowserFlags"=dword:00000008
@="Python Egg"
"AlwaysShowExt"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Python.Egg\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\Python23\\python.exe,0"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Python.Egg\shell]
@="Install Egg for Python 2.3"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Python.Egg\shell\Install Egg for Python 2.3]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Python.Egg\shell\Install Egg for Python 2.3\command]
@="c:\\windows\\command\\cmd.exe /D /K C:\\Python23\\Scripts\\easy_install 
\"%L\""

I wasn't able to get Firefox to directly install straight from a download, 
but saving to disk and then double-clicking worked.  It might be 
interesting to add a script to setuptools that would make these entries for 
you, automatically adjusting paths where necessary.  :)

Note that the '/K' part of the cmd.exe line ensures that a command shell 
window is left open for confirmation when easy_install finishes.  That way, 
you can see any errors, warnings, etc.

Thanks to Tiago Cogumbreiro, by the way, for inadvertently giving me the 
idea that something like this might be possible without writing any new 
code.  :)



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