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<A NAME="CHILD_LINKS"><STRONG>Subsections</STRONG></a>

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<LI><A href="trivial-install.html#SECTION000110000000000000000">1.1 Best case: trivial installation</a>
<LI><A href="trivial-install.html#SECTION000120000000000000000">1.2 The new standard: Distutils</a>
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<H1><A NAME="SECTION000100000000000000000"></A>
<A NAME="intro"></A>
<BR>
1 Introduction
</H1>

<P>
Although Python's extensive standard library covers many programming
needs, there often comes a time when you need to add some new
functionality to your Python installation in the form of third-party
modules.  This might be necessary to support your own programming, or to
support an application that you want to use and that happens to be
written in Python.

<P>
In the past, there has been little support for adding third-party
modules to an existing Python installation.  With the introduction of
the Python Distribution Utilities (Distutils for short) in Python 2.0,
this changed.

<P>
This document is aimed primarily at the people who need to install
third-party Python modules: end-users and system administrators who just
need to get some Python application running, and existing Python
programmers who want to add some new goodies to their toolbox.  You
don't need to know Python to read this document; there will be some
brief forays into using Python's interactive mode to explore your
installation, but that's it.  If you're looking for information on how
to distribute your own Python modules so that others may use them, see
the <em class="citetitle"><a
 href="../dist/dist.html"
 title="Distributing Python Modules"
 >Distributing Python Modules</a></em> manual.

<P>

<H2><A NAME="SECTION000110000000000000000"></A>
<A NAME="trivial-install"></A>
<BR>
1.1 Best case: trivial installation
</H2>

<P>
In the best case, someone will have prepared a special version of the
module distribution you want to install that is targeted specifically at
your platform and is installed just like any other software on your
platform.  For example, the module developer might make an executable
installer available for Windows users, an RPM package for users of
RPM-based Linux systems (Red Hat, SuSE, Mandrake, and many others), a
Debian package for users of Debian-based Linux systems, and so forth.

<P>
In that case, you would download the installer appropriate to your
platform and do the obvious thing with it: run it if it's an executable
installer, <code>rpm -&#45;install</code> it if it's an RPM, etc.  You don't need
to run Python or a setup script, you don't need to compile
anything--you might not even need to read any instructions (although
it's always a good idea to do so anyways).

<P>
Of course, things will not always be that easy.  You might be interested
in a module distribution that doesn't have an easy-to-use installer for
your platform.  In that case, you'll have to start with the source
distribution released by the module's author/maintainer.  Installing
from a source distribution is not too hard, as long as the modules are
packaged in the standard way.  The bulk of this document is about
building and installing modules from standard source distributions.

<P>

<H2><A NAME="SECTION000120000000000000000"></A>
<A NAME="new-standard"></A>
<BR>
1.2 The new standard: Distutils
</H2>

<P>
If you download a module source distribution, you can tell pretty
quickly if it was packaged and distributed in the standard way, i.e.
using the Distutils.  First, the distribution's name and version number
will be featured prominently in the name of the downloaded archive, e.g.
<span class="file">foo-1.0.tar.gz</span> or <span class="file">widget-0.9.7.zip</span>.  Next, the archive
will unpack into a similarly-named directory: <span class="file">foo-1.0</span> or
<span class="file">widget-0.9.7</span>.  Additionally, the distribution will contain a
setup script <span class="file">setup.py</span>, and a file named <span class="file">README.txt</span> or possibly
just <span class="file">README</span>, which should explain that building and installing the
module distribution is a simple matter of running

<P>
<div class="verbatim"><pre>
python setup.py install
</pre></div>

<P>
If all these things are true, then you already know how to build and
install the modules you've just downloaded:  Run the command above.
Unless you need to install things in a non-standard way or customize the
build process, you don't really need this manual.  Or rather, the above
command is everything you need to get out of this manual.

<P>

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<span class="release-info">Release 2.4.2, documentation updated on 28 September 2005.</span>
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