[Distutils] setuptools vs distribute on Debian

[Manlio Perillo]

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Il 18/11/2010 17:08, Tres Seaver ha scritto:
> On 11/18/2010 10:51 AM, Manlio Perillo wrote:
>> No, this is not a flame.
> 
>> I'm on Debian Squeeze and I noticed this strange thing:
> 
> [setuptools is an alias for sitribute]
> 
>> Now, I read that this is a Debian policy: for some reasons they force me
>> to use distribute instead setuptools.
> 
>> However, I *do* want to use setuptools, and I'm unable to do what I want.
>> I checked the "fake" setuptools source code but I can't see what I need
>> to modify in order to get setuptools when I ask for setuptools.
> 
> If you use the OS tools to install from the OS repositories, you are
> pretty much forced to live with any of their non-optional policy
> choices.  Alternatives would be to go "outside the box" in one way or
> another:
> 
> [...]
> - Install setuptools into the system Python manually (probably a Really
>   Bad Idea).
> 

What I would like to do is to edit Python setuptools source files in
order to remove the setuptools -> distribute alias.

Then do:
  $easy_install -U setuptools
  $aptitude purge python-setuptools
  $python -c "from setuptools.command import easy_install;
              easy_install.main(['setuptools'])"

The latter is required in order to reinstall scripts.

Note that this works on Debian Etch, but it does no more work on Debian
Squeeze.


> - Install and use 'virtualenv' to get an environment insulated from
>   the system Python.  'virtualenv' still uses the "real" setuptools by
>   default.
> 
> - Install Python and setuptools from source.
> 
> 
> I prefer the last option, myself, as I know better than the OS packagers
> do about how to configure and build Python and related stuff for my
> applications, just as they know better how to build it to support other
> system packages.
> 

I would like to avoid this option!

I usually build Python packages by myself (and often I use virtualenv),
however I do find very useful precompiled packages for something like
pygtk and pyqt, that I really *don't* want to build by myself (and, as
far as I know, are not even easy installable).




Thanks   Manlio
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