[Distutils] SetupTools: Running EasyInstall From Within A Script?

[Alexander Michael]

I am attempting to put together a simple package installation
replicator to make it easier to pull updates from a local repository
(as an alternative setup to a shared NFS directory). The idea is to
put a requirements list and the necessary eggs in a local shared
directory and then have a script on each computer do a quick check to
see if any updates are needed and install them if there is an update.
Is it possible to ask setuptools to install a package from within a
Python script without resorting to os.system or friends? I tried
browsing the source, but it was difficult to follow the call chain
from the easy_install script to the actual method being called.

Thanks,
Alex