Why am I getting an invalid syntax easy_install error?

Question

I need to use easy_install to install a package. I installed the enthought distribution, and popped into IDLE to say:

>>> easy_install SQLobject
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

What am I doing wrong? easy_install certainly exists, as does the package. help('easy_install') gives me some basic help. import easy_install doesn't change things either.

Any hints? I know I'm missing something really basic here.

Answer 1

easy_install is a shell command. You don't need to put it in a python script.

easy_install SQLobject

Type that straight into a bash (or other) shell, as long as easy_install is in your path.