setuptools easyinstall mysql-python-1.2.3

Question

Hi everybody

I have read a bunch of threads on setuptools here. A lot of people seem not to like it very much.

But I need to install MySQL-python-1.2.3. and when I do that I get this error:

 MySQL-python-1.2.3 X$ python setup.py cleanTraceback (most recent call last):
      File "setup.py", line 5, in <module>
        from setuptools import setup, Extension
    ImportError: No module named setuptools

So it seems I need setuptools and that it is assumed that it is installed.

On the setuptools python homepage it says:

Setuptools will install itself using the matching version of Python (e.g. python2.4), and will place the easy_install executable in the default location for installing Python scripts (as determined by the standard distutils configuration files, or by the Python installation).

Does this mean it will replace any default easy install from python?

If so I dont want to use it. If so can I install MySQL-python-1.2.3 without setupttools?

Thanks

Answer 1

You should use virtualenv and pip.

Virtualenv automatically creates a setuptools version within the new environment, so the default one is intact.

You may want to read how the packaging and installing works: 1, 2