How to install Python 3rd party libgmail-0.1.11.tar.tar into Python in Windows XP home?

Question

Hello, I do not know Python, I have installed it only and downloaded the libgmail package. So, please give me verbatim steps in installing the libgmail library. My python directory is c:\python26, so please do not skip any steps in the answer.

Thanks!

Answer 1

The easiest way might be to install easy_install using the instructions at that page and then typing the following at the command line:

easy_install libgmail

If it can't be found, then you can point it directly to the file that you downloaded:

easy_install c:\biglongpath\libgmail.zip

Answer 2

All you have to do is extract it, and put it somewhere (I prefer the Libs folder in your Python directory). Then read the readme. It explains that you need to do:

python setup.py

in your command line. Then you're done.

Answer 3

Let's say you downloaded and unzipped it to C:/libgmail-0.1.11. Open a command prompt and:

cd C:/libgmail-0.1.11

Then build an Windows installer:

python setup.py bdist --format=wininst

Then go to C:/libgmail-0.1.11/dist and you'll find an installer. Double click it, follow the "next" procedure and you're done.

What's nice about this method is that you can easily uninstall the library from Control Panel/Add or Remove Programs.

Answer 4

Extract the archive to a temporary directory, and type "python setup.py install".

Answer 5

Here's how I did it:

1. Make sure C:\Python26 and C:\Python26\scripts are both on your system path.
2. Install setuptools. You'll have to download the source distribution, and extract it. You will likely need something like 7zip for this. If you use 7zip note that you will need to extract it twice. Once to get a .tar file, and again to get a directory out of that tar file.
3. Open a command prompt and cd to the directory you created. Run the command python setup.py install.
4. Run the command easy_install mechanize.
5. Install libgmail just like you did setuptools.

This was a lot of work, but you now have the easy_install tool available to simplify installing these kinds of things in the future. If you're doing anything serious, you may also want to consider setting up a virtualenv and using pip instead of easy_install.