[Edu-sig] fwd: [Distutils] custom install directory with bdist_wininst

Arthur ajsiegel at optonline.net
Fri Aug 8 13:09:20 EDT 2003


PythonLabs, via Jeremy, seems to be on the case as to bdist_wininst. His
wish list is actually much more modest than mine. He seems to only hope to
be able to do a full distro off of the python tree.

I (as the distributor) want to be able to identify what are libaries, and go
to site-packages, and what are front-facing files (demos and docs, e.g.) and
go to a configurable directory not necessarily on the python tree.
*And* icons and start menu possibilites.

The responses on the disutils list to Jeremy's feature inquiry were not very
encouraging. He was basically advised to go with a full featured Windows
installer.

Which at least makes me feel better about coming to the same conclusion as
to a PyGeo distribution - that I should not feel shamed in resorting to a
third party installer as the only reasonable solution, at this stage of the
game, at least.

There in fact being free Windows installers available, with modest learning
curves.

To some extent, the temptation of bdist_wininst is the biggest problem of
bdist_wininst - is a possible unhappy conclusion.

Art

Jeremy Hylton jeremy at zope.com
Mon Jun 30 20:12:12 EDT 2003

I'd like to give the user control over where the files get installed.
It looks like distutils installs into site-packages by default, and
there's no way to override it.  The UI shows the destination directory
in a box that looks like it should be editable, but it isn't.

If you run setup.py install, you can pass a --home that affects where
files are installed.  I'm looking for something similar on Windows.

Jeremy





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