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<LI><A href="standard-install.html#SECTION000210000000000000000">2.1 Platform variations</a>
<LI><A href="standard-install.html#SECTION000220000000000000000">2.2 Splitting the job up</a>
<LI><A href="standard-install.html#SECTION000230000000000000000">2.3 How building works</a>
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<H1><A NAME="SECTION000200000000000000000"></A>
<A NAME="standard-install"></A>
<BR>
2 Standard Build and Install
</H1>

<P>
As described in section&nbsp;<A href="trivial-install.html#new-standard">1.2</A>, building and installing
a module distribution using the Distutils is usually one simple command:

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

<P>
On <span class="Unix">Unix</span>, you'd run this command from a shell prompt; on Windows, you
have to open a command prompt window (``DOS box'') and do it there; on
Mac OS X, you open a <code class="du-command">Terminal</code> window to get a shell prompt.

<P>

<H2><A NAME="SECTION000210000000000000000"></A>
<A NAME="platform-variations"></A>
<BR>
2.1 Platform variations
</H2>

<P>
You should always run the setup command from the distribution root
directory, i.e. the top-level subdirectory that the module source
distribution unpacks into.  For example, if you've just downloaded a
module source distribution <span class="file">foo-1.0.tar.gz</span> onto a
<span class="Unix">Unix</span> system, the normal thing to do is:

<P>
<div class="verbatim"><pre>
gunzip -c foo-1.0.tar.gz | tar xf -    # unpacks into directory foo-1.0
cd foo-1.0
python setup.py install
</pre></div>

<P>
On Windows, you'd probably download <span class="file">foo-1.0.zip</span>.  If you
downloaded the archive file to <span class="file">C:&#92;Temp</span>, then it
would unpack into <span class="file">C:&#92;Temp&#92;foo-1.0</span>;
you can use either a archive manipulator with a graphical user interface
(such as WinZip) or a command-line tool (such as <b class="program">unzip</b> or
<b class="program">pkunzip</b>) to unpack the archive.  Then, open a command prompt
window (``DOS box''), and run:

<P>
<div class="verbatim"><pre>
cd c:\Temp\foo-1.0
python setup.py install
</pre></div>

<P>

<H2><A NAME="SECTION000220000000000000000"></A>
<A NAME="splitting-up"></A>
<BR>
2.2 Splitting the job up
</H2>

<P>
Running <code>setup.py install</code> builds and installs all modules in one
run.  If you prefer to work incrementally--especially useful if you
want to customize the build process, or if things are going wrong--you
can use the setup script to do one thing at a time.  This is
particularly helpful when the build and install will be done by
different users--for example, you might want to build a module distribution
and hand it off to a system administrator for installation (or do it
yourself, with super-user privileges).

<P>
For example, you can build everything in one step, and then install
everything in a second step, by invoking the setup script twice:

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

<P>
If you do this, you will notice that running the <code class="du-command">install</code>
command first runs the <code class="du-command">build</code> command, which--in this
case--quickly notices that it has nothing to do, since everything in
the <span class="file">build</span> directory is up-to-date.

<P>
You may not need this ability to break things down often if all you do
is install modules downloaded off the 'net, but it's very handy for more
advanced tasks.  If you get into distributing your own Python modules
and extensions, you'll run lots of individual Distutils commands on
their own.

<P>

<H2><A NAME="SECTION000230000000000000000"></A>
<A NAME="how-build-works"></A>
<BR>
2.3 How building works
</H2>

<P>
As implied above, the <code class="du-command">build</code> command is responsible for putting
the files to install into a <em>build directory</em>.  By default, this is
<span class="file">build</span> under the distribution root; if you're excessively
concerned with speed, or want to keep the source tree pristine, you can
change the build directory with the <b class="programopt">--build-base</b> option.
For example:

<P>
<div class="verbatim"><pre>
python setup.py build --build-base=/tmp/pybuild/foo-1.0
</pre></div>

<P>
(Or you could do this permanently with a directive in your system or
personal Distutils configuration file; see
section&nbsp;<A href="config-syntax.html#config-files">5</A>.)  Normally, this isn't necessary.

<P>
The default layout for the build tree is as follows:

<P>
<div class="verbatim"><pre>
--- build/ --- lib/
or
--- build/ --- lib.&lt;plat&gt;/
               temp.&lt;plat&gt;/
</pre></div>

<P>
where <code>&lt;plat&gt;</code> expands to a brief description of the current
OS/hardware platform and Python version.  The first form, with just a
<span class="file">lib</span> directory, is used for ``pure module distributions''--that
is, module distributions that include only pure Python modules.  If a
module distribution contains any extensions (modules written in C/C++),
then the second form, with two <code>&lt;plat&gt;</code> directories, is used.  In
that case, the <span class="file">temp.<span class="du-filevar">plat</span></span> directory holds temporary
files generated by the compile/link process that don't actually get
installed.  In either case, the <span class="file">lib</span> (or
<span class="file">lib.<span class="du-filevar">plat</span></span>) directory contains all Python modules (pure
Python and extensions) that will be installed.

<P>
In the future, more directories will be added to handle Python scripts,
documentation, binary executables, and whatever else is needed to handle
the job of installing Python modules and applications.

<P>

<H2><A NAME="SECTION000240000000000000000"></A>
<A NAME="how-install-works"></A>
<BR>
2.4 How installation works
</H2>

<P>
After the <code class="du-command">build</code> command runs (whether you run it explicitly,
or the <code class="du-command">install</code> command does it for you), the work of the
<code class="du-command">install</code> command is relatively simple: all it has to do is copy
everything under <span class="file">build/lib</span> (or <span class="file">build/lib.<span class="du-filevar">plat</span></span>)
to your chosen installation directory.

<P>
If you don't choose an installation directory--i.e., if you just run
<code>setup.py install</code>--then the <code class="du-command">install</code> command installs to
the standard location for third-party Python modules.  This location
varies by platform and by how you built/installed Python itself.  On
<span class="Unix">Unix</span> (and Mac OS X, which is also Unix-based),
it also depends on whether the module distribution
being installed is pure Python or contains extensions (``non-pure''):
<div class="center"><table class="realtable">
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th class="left"  >Platform</th>
      <th class="left"  >Standard installation location</th>
      <th class="left"  >Default value</th>
      <th class="center">Notes</th>
      </tr>
    </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr><td class="left"   valign="baseline"><span class="Unix">Unix</span> (pure)</td>
        <td class="left"  ><span class="file"><span class="du-filevar">prefix</span>/lib/python2.4/site-packages</span></td>
        <td class="left"  ><span class="file">/usr/local/lib/python2.4/site-packages</span></td>
        <td class="center">(1)</td></tr>
    <tr><td class="left"   valign="baseline"><span class="Unix">Unix</span> (non-pure)</td>
        <td class="left"  ><span class="file"><span class="du-filevar">exec-prefix</span>/lib/python2.4/site-packages</span></td>
        <td class="left"  ><span class="file">/usr/local/lib/python2.4/site-packages</span></td>
        <td class="center">(1)</td></tr>
    <tr><td class="left"   valign="baseline">Windows</td>
        <td class="left"  ><span class="file"><span class="du-filevar">prefix</span></span></td>
        <td class="left"  ><span class="file">C:&#92;Python</span></td>
        <td class="center">(2)</td></tr></tbody>
</table></div>

<P>
Notes:
<DL>
<DT><STRONG>(1)</STRONG></DT>
<DD>Most Linux distributions include Python as a standard part of
  the system, so <span class="du-filevar">prefix</span> and <span class="du-filevar">exec-prefix</span> are usually
  both <span class="file">/usr</span> on Linux.  If you build Python yourself on Linux (or
  any <span class="Unix">Unix</span>-like system), the default <span class="du-filevar">prefix</span> and
  <span class="du-filevar">exec-prefix</span> are <span class="file">/usr/local</span>.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG>(2)</STRONG></DT>
<DD>The default installation directory on Windows was
  <span class="file">C:&#92;Program Files&#92;Python</span> under
  Python 1.6a1, 1.5.2, and earlier.
</DD>
</DL>

<P>
<span class="du-filevar">prefix</span> and <span class="du-filevar">exec-prefix</span> stand for the directories
that Python is installed to, and where it finds its libraries at
run-time.  They are always the same under Windows, and very
often the same under <span class="Unix">Unix</span>and Mac OS X.  You can find out what your Python
installation uses for <span class="du-filevar">prefix</span> and <span class="du-filevar">exec-prefix</span> by
running Python in interactive mode and typing a few simple commands.
Under <span class="Unix">Unix</span>, just type <code>python</code> at the shell prompt.  Under
Windows, choose <span class="guilabel">Start </span> &gt; <span class="guilabel">Programs </span> &gt; <span class="guilabel">Python
2.4</span> &gt; <span class="guilabel">Python (command line)</span>.  
Once the interpreter is started, you type Python code at the
prompt.  For example, on my Linux system, I type the three Python
statements shown below, and get the output as shown, to find out my
<span class="du-filevar">prefix</span> and <span class="du-filevar">exec-prefix</span>:

<P>
<div class="verbatim"><pre>
Python 2.4 (#26, Aug  7 2004, 17:19:02) 
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
&gt;&gt;&gt; import sys
&gt;&gt;&gt; sys.prefix
'/usr'
&gt;&gt;&gt; sys.exec_prefix
'/usr'
</pre></div>

<P>
If you don't want to install modules to the standard location, or if you
don't have permission to write there, then you need to read about
alternate installations in section&nbsp;<A href="alt-install-windows.html#alt-install">3</A>.  If you want to
customize your installation directories more heavily, see
section&nbsp;<A href="search-path.html#custom-install">4</A> on custom installations.

<P>

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	55	<LI><A href="standard-install.html#SECTION000210000000000000000">2.1 Platform variations</a>
	56	<LI><A href="standard-install.html#SECTION000220000000000000000">2.2 Splitting the job up</a>
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	63
	64	<H1><A NAME="SECTION000200000000000000000"></A>
65	<A NAME="standard-install"></A>
66	<BR>
67	2 Standard Build and Install
68	</H1>
69
70	<P>
71	As described in section <A href="trivial-install.html#new-standard">1.2</A>, building and installing
72	a module distribution using the Distutils is usually one simple command:
73
74	<P>
75	<div class="verbatim"><pre>
76	python setup.py install
77	</pre></div>
78
79	<P>
80	On <span class="Unix">Unix</span>, you'd run this command from a shell prompt; on Windows, you
81	have to open a command prompt window (``DOS box'') and do it there; on
82	Mac OS X, you open a <code class="du-command">Terminal</code> window to get a shell prompt.
83
84	<P>
85
86	<H2><A NAME="SECTION000210000000000000000"></A>
87	<A NAME="platform-variations"></A>
88	<BR>
89	2.1 Platform variations
90	</H2>
91
92	<P>
93	You should always run the setup command from the distribution root
94	directory, i.e. the top-level subdirectory that the module source
95	distribution unpacks into. For example, if you've just downloaded a
96	module source distribution <span class="file">foo-1.0.tar.gz</span> onto a
97	<span class="Unix">Unix</span> system, the normal thing to do is:
98
99	<P>
100	<div class="verbatim"><pre>
101	gunzip -c foo-1.0.tar.gz \| tar xf - # unpacks into directory foo-1.0
102	cd foo-1.0
103	python setup.py install
104	</pre></div>
105
106	<P>
107	On Windows, you'd probably download <span class="file">foo-1.0.zip</span>. If you
108	downloaded the archive file to <span class="file">C:\Temp</span>, then it
109	would unpack into <span class="file">C:\Temp\foo-1.0</span>;
110	you can use either a archive manipulator with a graphical user interface
111	(such as WinZip) or a command-line tool (such as <b class="program">unzip</b> or
112	<b class="program">pkunzip</b>) to unpack the archive. Then, open a command prompt
113	window (``DOS box''), and run:
114
115	<P>
116	<div class="verbatim"><pre>
117	cd c:\Temp\foo-1.0
118	python setup.py install
119	</pre></div>
120
121	<P>
122
123	<H2><A NAME="SECTION000220000000000000000"></A>
124	<A NAME="splitting-up"></A>
125	<BR>
126	2.2 Splitting the job up
127	</H2>
128
129	<P>
130	Running <code>setup.py install</code> builds and installs all modules in one
131	run. If you prefer to work incrementally--especially useful if you
132	want to customize the build process, or if things are going wrong--you
133	can use the setup script to do one thing at a time. This is
134	particularly helpful when the build and install will be done by
135	different users--for example, you might want to build a module distribution
136	and hand it off to a system administrator for installation (or do it
137	yourself, with super-user privileges).
138
139	<P>
140	For example, you can build everything in one step, and then install
141	everything in a second step, by invoking the setup script twice:
142
143	<P>
144	<div class="verbatim"><pre>
145	python setup.py build
146	python setup.py install
147	</pre></div>
148
149	<P>
150	If you do this, you will notice that running the <code class="du-command">install</code>
151	command first runs the <code class="du-command">build</code> command, which--in this
152	case--quickly notices that it has nothing to do, since everything in
153	the <span class="file">build</span> directory is up-to-date.
154
155	<P>
156	You may not need this ability to break things down often if all you do
157	is install modules downloaded off the 'net, but it's very handy for more
158	advanced tasks. If you get into distributing your own Python modules
159	and extensions, you'll run lots of individual Distutils commands on
160	their own.
161
162	<P>
163
164	<H2><A NAME="SECTION000230000000000000000"></A>
165	<A NAME="how-build-works"></A>
166	<BR>
167	2.3 How building works
168	</H2>
169
170	<P>
171	As implied above, the <code class="du-command">build</code> command is responsible for putting
172	the files to install into a <em>build directory</em>. By default, this is
173	<span class="file">build</span> under the distribution root; if you're excessively
174	concerned with speed, or want to keep the source tree pristine, you can
175	change the build directory with the <b class="programopt">--build-base</b> option.
176	For example:
177
178	<P>
179	<div class="verbatim"><pre>
180	python setup.py build --build-base=/tmp/pybuild/foo-1.0
181	</pre></div>
182
183	<P>
184	(Or you could do this permanently with a directive in your system or
185	personal Distutils configuration file; see
186	section <A href="config-syntax.html#config-files">5</A>.) Normally, this isn't necessary.
187
188	<P>
189	The default layout for the build tree is as follows:
190
191	<P>
192	<div class="verbatim"><pre>
193	--- build/ --- lib/
194	or
195	--- build/ --- lib.<plat>/
196	temp.<plat>/
197	</pre></div>
198
199	<P>
200	where <code><plat></code> expands to a brief description of the current
201	OS/hardware platform and Python version. The first form, with just a
202	<span class="file">lib</span> directory, is used for ``pure module distributions''--that
203	is, module distributions that include only pure Python modules. If a
204	module distribution contains any extensions (modules written in C/C++),
205	then the second form, with two <code><plat></code> directories, is used. In
206	that case, the <span class="file">temp.<span class="du-filevar">plat</span></span> directory holds temporary
207	files generated by the compile/link process that don't actually get
208	installed. In either case, the <span class="file">lib</span> (or
209	<span class="file">lib.<span class="du-filevar">plat</span></span>) directory contains all Python modules (pure
210	Python and extensions) that will be installed.
211
212	<P>
213	In the future, more directories will be added to handle Python scripts,
214	documentation, binary executables, and whatever else is needed to handle
215	the job of installing Python modules and applications.
216
217	<P>
218
219	<H2><A NAME="SECTION000240000000000000000"></A>
220	<A NAME="how-install-works"></A>
221	<BR>
222	2.4 How installation works
223	</H2>
224
225	<P>
226	After the <code class="du-command">build</code> command runs (whether you run it explicitly,
227	or the <code class="du-command">install</code> command does it for you), the work of the
228	<code class="du-command">install</code> command is relatively simple: all it has to do is copy
229	everything under <span class="file">build/lib</span> (or <span class="file">build/lib.<span class="du-filevar">plat</span></span>)
230	to your chosen installation directory.
231
232	<P>
233	If you don't choose an installation directory--i.e., if you just run
234	<code>setup.py install</code>--then the <code class="du-command">install</code> command installs to
235	the standard location for third-party Python modules. This location
236	varies by platform and by how you built/installed Python itself. On
237	<span class="Unix">Unix</span> (and Mac OS X, which is also Unix-based),
238	it also depends on whether the module distribution
239	being installed is pure Python or contains extensions (``non-pure''):
240	<div class="center"><table class="realtable">
241	<thead>
242	<tr>
243	<th class="left" >Platform</th>
244	<th class="left" >Standard installation location</th>
245	<th class="left" >Default value</th>
246	<th class="center">Notes</th>
247	</tr>
248	</thead>
249	<tbody>
250	<tr><td class="left" valign="baseline"><span class="Unix">Unix</span> (pure)</td>
251	<td class="left" ><span class="file"><span class="du-filevar">prefix</span>/lib/python2.4/site-packages</span></td>
252	<td class="left" ><span class="file">/usr/local/lib/python2.4/site-packages</span></td>
253	<td class="center">(1)</td></tr>
254	<tr><td class="left" valign="baseline"><span class="Unix">Unix</span> (non-pure)</td>
255	<td class="left" ><span class="file"><span class="du-filevar">exec-prefix</span>/lib/python2.4/site-packages</span></td>
256	<td class="left" ><span class="file">/usr/local/lib/python2.4/site-packages</span></td>
257	<td class="center">(1)</td></tr>
258	<tr><td class="left" valign="baseline">Windows</td>
259	<td class="left" ><span class="file"><span class="du-filevar">prefix</span></span></td>
260	<td class="left" ><span class="file">C:\Python</span></td>
261	<td class="center">(2)</td></tr></tbody>
262	</table></div>
263
264	<P>
265	Notes:
266	<DL>
267	<DT><STRONG>(1)</STRONG></DT>
268	<DD>Most Linux distributions include Python as a standard part of
269	the system, so <span class="du-filevar">prefix</span> and <span class="du-filevar">exec-prefix</span> are usually
270	both <span class="file">/usr</span> on Linux. If you build Python yourself on Linux (or
271	any <span class="Unix">Unix</span>-like system), the default <span class="du-filevar">prefix</span> and
272	<span class="du-filevar">exec-prefix</span> are <span class="file">/usr/local</span>.
273	</DD>
274	<DT><STRONG>(2)</STRONG></DT>
275	<DD>The default installation directory on Windows was
276	<span class="file">C:\Program Files\Python</span> under
277	Python 1.6a1, 1.5.2, and earlier.
278	</DD>
279	</DL>
280
281	<P>
282	<span class="du-filevar">prefix</span> and <span class="du-filevar">exec-prefix</span> stand for the directories
283	that Python is installed to, and where it finds its libraries at
284	run-time. They are always the same under Windows, and very
285	often the same under <span class="Unix">Unix</span>and Mac OS X. You can find out what your Python
286	installation uses for <span class="du-filevar">prefix</span> and <span class="du-filevar">exec-prefix</span> by
287	running Python in interactive mode and typing a few simple commands.
288	Under <span class="Unix">Unix</span>, just type <code>python</code> at the shell prompt. Under
289	Windows, choose <span class="guilabel">Start </span> > <span class="guilabel">Programs </span> > <span class="guilabel">Python
290	2.4</span> > <span class="guilabel">Python (command line)</span>.
291	Once the interpreter is started, you type Python code at the
292	prompt. For example, on my Linux system, I type the three Python
293	statements shown below, and get the output as shown, to find out my
294	<span class="du-filevar">prefix</span> and <span class="du-filevar">exec-prefix</span>:
295
296	<P>
297	<div class="verbatim"><pre>
298	Python 2.4 (#26, Aug 7 2004, 17:19:02)
299	Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
300	>>> import sys
301	>>> sys.prefix
302	'/usr'
303	>>> sys.exec_prefix
304	'/usr'
305	</pre></div>
306
307	<P>
308	If you don't want to install modules to the standard location, or if you
309	don't have permission to write there, then you need to read about
310	alternate installations in section <A href="alt-install-windows.html#alt-install">3</A>. If you want to
311	customize your installation directories more heavily, see
312	section <A href="search-path.html#custom-install">4</A> on custom installations.
313
314	<P>
315
316	<P>
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