Current install methodolgy eggs?

Ben Finney ben+python at benfinney.id.au
Sun Sep 12 18:40:02 EDT 2010


Paul Watson <paul.hermeneutic at gmail.com> writes:

> What is the currently favored installation process for Python
> applications?

‘python ./setup.py install’, using the standard library's Distutils
library.

Other third-party libraries build on top of that and are generally
backward-compatible.

> The last time I looked, it was eggs.  Is that still true?

I don't think eggs were ever the favoured distribution method. They are
one *option* provided by Setuptools, but even then a so-called “sdist”
(source distribution) is the favoured distribution format, installed
using the above command.

> Any good links to source of information. I would like to instill the
> habit of using a decent install process for even the smallest of
> utilities.

This is a dream shared by many, but Distutils has much improvement to be
done yet. Recently — the past couple of years — a lot of progress has
been made on this front, and Python 3.x is getting many of the benefits;
look up the “Distutils2” efforts for more.

-- 
 \          “That's all very good in practice, but how does it work in |
  `\                                             *theory*?” —anonymous |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney



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