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| 52 | <A NAME="CHILD_LINKS"><STRONG>Subsections</STRONG></a> |
| 53 | |
| 54 | <UL CLASS="ChildLinks"> |
| 55 | <LI><A href="trivial-install.html#SECTION000110000000000000000">1.1 Best case: trivial installation</a> |
| 56 | <LI><A href="trivial-install.html#SECTION000120000000000000000">1.2 The new standard: Distutils</a> |
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| 61 | |
| 62 | <H1><A NAME="SECTION000100000000000000000"></A> |
| 63 | <A NAME="intro"></A> |
| 64 | <BR> |
| 65 | 1 Introduction |
| 66 | </H1> |
| 67 | |
| 68 | <P> |
| 69 | Although Python's extensive standard library covers many programming |
| 70 | needs, there often comes a time when you need to add some new |
| 71 | functionality to your Python installation in the form of third-party |
| 72 | modules. This might be necessary to support your own programming, or to |
| 73 | support an application that you want to use and that happens to be |
| 74 | written in Python. |
| 75 | |
| 76 | <P> |
| 77 | In the past, there has been little support for adding third-party |
| 78 | modules to an existing Python installation. With the introduction of |
| 79 | the Python Distribution Utilities (Distutils for short) in Python 2.0, |
| 80 | this changed. |
| 81 | |
| 82 | <P> |
| 83 | This document is aimed primarily at the people who need to install |
| 84 | third-party Python modules: end-users and system administrators who just |
| 85 | need to get some Python application running, and existing Python |
| 86 | programmers who want to add some new goodies to their toolbox. You |
| 87 | don't need to know Python to read this document; there will be some |
| 88 | brief forays into using Python's interactive mode to explore your |
| 89 | installation, but that's it. If you're looking for information on how |
| 90 | to distribute your own Python modules so that others may use them, see |
| 91 | the <em class="citetitle"><a |
| 92 | href="../dist/dist.html" |
| 93 | title="Distributing Python Modules" |
| 94 | >Distributing Python Modules</a></em> manual. |
| 95 | |
| 96 | <P> |
| 97 | |
| 98 | <H2><A NAME="SECTION000110000000000000000"></A> |
| 99 | <A NAME="trivial-install"></A> |
| 100 | <BR> |
| 101 | 1.1 Best case: trivial installation |
| 102 | </H2> |
| 103 | |
| 104 | <P> |
| 105 | In the best case, someone will have prepared a special version of the |
| 106 | module distribution you want to install that is targeted specifically at |
| 107 | your platform and is installed just like any other software on your |
| 108 | platform. For example, the module developer might make an executable |
| 109 | installer available for Windows users, an RPM package for users of |
| 110 | RPM-based Linux systems (Red Hat, SuSE, Mandrake, and many others), a |
| 111 | Debian package for users of Debian-based Linux systems, and so forth. |
| 112 | |
| 113 | <P> |
| 114 | In that case, you would download the installer appropriate to your |
| 115 | platform and do the obvious thing with it: run it if it's an executable |
| 116 | installer, <code>rpm --install</code> it if it's an RPM, etc. You don't need |
| 117 | to run Python or a setup script, you don't need to compile |
| 118 | anything--you might not even need to read any instructions (although |
| 119 | it's always a good idea to do so anyways). |
| 120 | |
| 121 | <P> |
| 122 | Of course, things will not always be that easy. You might be interested |
| 123 | in a module distribution that doesn't have an easy-to-use installer for |
| 124 | your platform. In that case, you'll have to start with the source |
| 125 | distribution released by the module's author/maintainer. Installing |
| 126 | from a source distribution is not too hard, as long as the modules are |
| 127 | packaged in the standard way. The bulk of this document is about |
| 128 | building and installing modules from standard source distributions. |
| 129 | |
| 130 | <P> |
| 131 | |
| 132 | <H2><A NAME="SECTION000120000000000000000"></A> |
| 133 | <A NAME="new-standard"></A> |
| 134 | <BR> |
| 135 | 1.2 The new standard: Distutils |
| 136 | </H2> |
| 137 | |
| 138 | <P> |
| 139 | If you download a module source distribution, you can tell pretty |
| 140 | quickly if it was packaged and distributed in the standard way, i.e. |
| 141 | using the Distutils. First, the distribution's name and version number |
| 142 | will be featured prominently in the name of the downloaded archive, e.g. |
| 143 | <span class="file">foo-1.0.tar.gz</span> or <span class="file">widget-0.9.7.zip</span>. Next, the archive |
| 144 | will unpack into a similarly-named directory: <span class="file">foo-1.0</span> or |
| 145 | <span class="file">widget-0.9.7</span>. Additionally, the distribution will contain a |
| 146 | setup script <span class="file">setup.py</span>, and a file named <span class="file">README.txt</span> or possibly |
| 147 | just <span class="file">README</span>, which should explain that building and installing the |
| 148 | module distribution is a simple matter of running |
| 149 | |
| 150 | <P> |
| 151 | <div class="verbatim"><pre> |
| 152 | python setup.py install |
| 153 | </pre></div> |
| 154 | |
| 155 | <P> |
| 156 | If all these things are true, then you already know how to build and |
| 157 | install the modules you've just downloaded: Run the command above. |
| 158 | Unless you need to install things in a non-standard way or customize the |
| 159 | build process, you don't really need this manual. Or rather, the above |
| 160 | command is everything you need to get out of this manual. |
| 161 | |
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| 196 | <span class="release-info">Release 2.4.2, documentation updated on 28 September 2005.</span> |
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