setup.py when you can't write to site-packages?

[andybak]

Thanks Diez.

For one thing I was getting setuptools mixed up with distutils. Then it
occurred to me that this might be covered in the standard distutils
docs (obvious I know but before I was thinking of it as a general
Python problem and therefore wasn't sure where it might be documented)

The solution was therefore right in plain view:
http://docs.python.org/inst/alt-install-windows.html (despite the
misleading url this page applies to Unix)

(Must. Check. Docs. Before. Posting.)

Diez B. Roggisch wrote:
> andybak wrote:
>
> > There are several gaps in my Python knowledge, one of which is the what
> > exactly setuptools does and how it works.
> >
> > I'm on a shared host so can't write to site-packages therefore most
> > setup.py's fail.
> >
> > My strategy for pure python packages is to run setup.py locally and
> > copy anything that gets put in site-packages across to the shared host
> > somewhere in my Python path. I'm sure there is a better solution!
> >
> > What's the best approach for situations when you can't tamper with the
> > Python install?
>
> If you've got setuptools installed, you can use the development mode + a
> staging dir that you put in your PYTHONPATH. Then the copying is done for
> you.
> 
> Diez