[py-dev] setuptools and PYTHONPATH

[holger krekel]

On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 13:46 +0200, Ralf Schmitt wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 1:11 PM, Ralf Schmitt <schmir at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Does setuptools really force global installation
> >> over private environment settings?
> >>
> >
> > See http://www.eby-sarna.com/pipermail/peak/2006-June/002582.html for
> > a discussion.
> > You can deactivate the installed package with easy_install -m py.
> >
> 
> >From the same thread
> (http://www.eby-sarna.com/pipermail/peak/2006-June/002584.html):
> """
> This isn't what you want.  What you want to do is point PYTHONPATH to a
> staging directory of some sort, and put that directory on the "develop"
> line.  What you're doing here is trying to install the library *onto
> itself*.  -d and PYTHONPATH need to be some *other* location, to which
> you're installing.
> 
> 
> >which overrides the site-packages version, but also requires root
> >access.  how would I do this without requiring root access ?
> 
> mkdir ~/py_lib
> export PYTHONPATH=~/py_lib
> cd ~/sa020
> python setup.py develop -d ~/py_lib
> """
> 
> i.e. you need to put the egg on PYTHONPATH in order to override the
> system wide installation, *not* the directory which contains the
> source code.

thanks for the info and clarification. 

looks inconvenient and IMHO changes the basic PYTHONPATH
expectation - as noted down in 
http://docs.python.org/tut/node8.html#SECTION008120000000000000000

actually i don't really see why setuptools has to violate this. 

holger