setup.py - just what is it for ?

[Richard Shea]

Hi - This is probably quite a stupid question but I've never
understood what setup.py does. I've got a situation at the moment
where I would like to use a script (which someone else has written and
made available) to do CGI on a shared webserver to which I do not have
shell access.

The install instructions say "run python setup.py" but as far as I'm
aware I cannot do that.

There is only one script involved (except for the setup.py !) and so
I'm probably just going to copy it into my cgi-bin and give it a go
but I'd like to know for future reference just how bad could it be if
I did this ? Are there circumstances where you must use setup.py to
have any hope of the code working ?

BTW here is the setup.py in question ...

from distutils.core import setup

classifiers = """\
Development Status :: 5 - Production/Stable
Environment :: Web Environment
Intended Audience :: Developers
License :: OSI Approved :: GNU General Public License (GPL)
Operating System :: OS Independent
Topic :: Internet :: WWW/HTTP
Topic :: Internet :: WWW/HTTP :: Dynamic Content :: CGI
Tools/Libraries
"""
import sys
if sys.version_info < (2, 3):
    _setup = setup
    def setup(**kwargs):
        if kwargs.has_key("classifiers"):
            del kwargs["classifiers"]
        _setup(**kwargs)

setup(name="cgi_app",py_modules=["cgi_app"],
        version="1.3",
        maintainer="Anders Pearson",
        maintainer_email="anders at columbia.edu",
        url = "http://thraxil.org/code/cgi_app/",
        license = "http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html",
        platforms = ["any"],
        description = "CGI and mod_python MVC application framework",
        long_description = """framework for building MVC CGI and
mod_python
        applications. based on the perl CGI::Application module but
more
        pythonic.""",
        classifiers = filter(None, classifiers.split("\n")))


... I would appreciate any information about this (or any tips on how
to deal with no shell access).

thanks

richard