[Distutils] Problem with bdist_wininst option (trying to distribute a COM server, on Windows XP)

[Vinke, Johan]

Preface:  If this ends up being a real "Newbie" question, my 
apologies to all.  But I have read "Distributing Python Modules" 
by Greg Ward, May 19, 2004, particularly Chapter 6 - Creating 
Built Distributions - and 6.3 - Creating Windows Installer.  And 
I still can't see what I'm doing wrong.  


I'm having trouble using distutils with the bdist_wininst option.  
I've been able to create a COM server and package it in a .DLL, 
but I can't create an "installer" as a .exe  My goal is to create 
a .exe that can be run on a client machine that does NOT have the 
standard Python environment, and this .exe would install all the 
modules?/.dll's/.exe's that are necessary for the COM server to 
run on the client machine.  

When I activate the "Run" command from within the PythonWin 
window and select the program setup_NaComponent_exe.py (attached), 
it nicely creates build and dist sub-directories.  In the dist 
directory, there is a .exe and a .dll file:  

    NaComponent.dll 
    NaComponent.exe 

The interactive window has lots of informational messages 
such as:  

*** copy extensions ***
.
.
*** copy dlls ***
.
.
*** binary dependencies ***
.
.

But the .exe and .dll created from the above (without the 
bdist_wininst argument) cannot be simply installed on a 
client machine and act as a COM server.  (I tried registering 
the .dll with this command:  

regsvr32 /s
\\Eng\prod\Group\TIS\Dev\Mfg\M3_New_PipeShop_COM\Current\Application\dis
t\NaComponent.dll

but that did not work.  

Next, I ran  setup_NaComponent_exe.py, but I added the argument:  

    bdist_wininst  

The messages returned in the interactive window were:  

>>> running bdist_wininst
running build
installing to build\bdist.win32\wininst
>>>  

There was an error:  

    ....\setup_NaComponent_exe.py' returned exit code error:
build\bdist.win32\wininst: No such fi  

So I created the directory build\bdist.win32\wininst, reran 
the setup program, and got this:  

>>> running bdist_wininst
running build
installing to build\bdist.win32\wininst
creating 'c:\docume~1\n50519\locals~1\temp\tmpaqvrsy.zip' and adding '.'
to it
removing 'build\bdist.win32\wininst' (and everything under it)
>>> 
>>> 

But there was no zip file tmpaqvrsy.zip in the above-mentioned 
directory, and the wininst directory was removed (as described 
above).  

Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong?  

Johan Vinke 
Nassco 
San Diego, CA


_________________________________________________________________

Version info: Python Version:  2.3.3 
           PythonWin Version:  win32all build 163
1st info line in   PythonWin:  PythonWin 2.3.3 (#51, Dec 18 2003,
20:22:39) [MSC v.1200 32 bit (Intel)] on win32.

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: setup_NaComponent_exe.py
Type: application/octet-stream
Size: 1773 bytes
Desc: setup_NaComponent_exe.py
Url : http://mail.python.org/pipermail/distutils-sig/attachments/20070723/2ddd996e/attachment.obj