Distutils doesn't like VPS's (virtual private servers)

[tracy s. ruggles]

Hi, I'm having the darndest time trying to install something on my VPS (a
shared hosting setup that pretends to be its own machine).

The problems seems to be in Distutils/sysconfig.py where it tries to get the
library directories to run the installation.  It spits out /usr/local, but
on a VPS it actually is /usr/home/[user]/usr/local where [user] is your
account name.

So, I tried changing sysconfig.py so that it would prefix anything it spit
out with the proper directory.  But, I mustn't have found everywhere it does
it (or, maybe it's getting a directory listing from some other module).

The output of my attempt to install MySQLdb is below.  You'll notice that
it's looking for:

/usr/home/ol0401/usr/local/Python-2.1/Lib/lib/python2.1/config/Makefile

...which doesn't exist because I've got my own installation of python (since
a VPS won't let me install anything in the shared library folder).  It's
appending /lib/python2.1/ automatically somewhere in the code when it
shouldn't be.

Here's my problem, I need the installation to find the right include
directory for *my* installation of python at ~/usr/bin/python (which is
actually /usr/home/ol0401/usr/bin/python).

Where in the world is the include directory specified.  Or, at least, where
can I override it?

Can anybody help?  Please?

Thanks,
Trace

..

ol0401.vwh.net% ~/usr/bin/python setup.py build
running build
running build_py
not copying CompatMysqldb.py (output up-to-date)
not copying _mysql_exceptions.py (output up-to-date)
not copying MySQLdb/__init__.py (output up-to-date)
not copying MySQLdb/converters.py (output up-to-date)
not copying MySQLdb/connections.py (output up-to-date)
not copying MySQLdb/cursors.py (output up-to-date)
not copying MySQLdb/sets.py (output up-to-date)
not copying MySQLdb/times.py (output up-to-date)
not copying MySQLdb/constants/__init__.py (output up-to-date)
not copying MySQLdb/constants/CR.py (output up-to-date)
not copying MySQLdb/constants/FIELD_TYPE.py (output up-to-date)
not copying MySQLdb/constants/ER.py (output up-to-date)
not copying MySQLdb/constants/FLAG.py (output up-to-date)
not copying MySQLdb/constants/REFRESH.py (output up-to-date)
not copying MySQLdb/constants/CLIENT.py (output up-to-date)
running build_ext
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "setup.py", line 110, in ?
    extra_objects=extra_objects,
  File "/usr/home/ol0401/Python-2.1/Lib/distutils/core.py", line 138, in
setup
  File "/usr/home/ol0401/Python-2.1/Lib/distutils/dist.py", line 899, in
run_commands
  File "/usr/home/ol0401/Python-2.1/Lib/distutils/dist.py", line 919, in
run_command
  File "/usr/home/ol0401/Python-2.1/Lib/distutils/command/build.py", line
106, in run
  File "/usr/home/ol0401/usr/local/Python-2.1/Lib/cmd.py", line 328, in
run_command
    print "\n"
  File "/usr/home/ol0401/Python-2.1/Lib/distutils/dist.py", line 919, in
run_command
  File "/usr/home/ol0401/Python-2.1/Lib/distutils/command/build_ext.py",
line 231, in run
  File "/usr/home/ol0401/usr/local/Python-2.1/Lib/distutils/sysconfig.py",
line 124, in customize_compiler
    (cc, opt, ccshared, ldshared, so_ext) = \
  File "/usr/home/ol0401/usr/local/Python-2.1/Lib/distutils/sysconfig.py",
line 369, in get_config_vars
    func()
  File "/usr/home/ol0401/usr/local/Python-2.1/Lib/distutils/sysconfig.py",
line 305, in _init_posix
    raise DistutilsPlatformError, my_msg
distutils.errors.DistutilsPlatformError: invalid Python installation: unable
to open 
/usr/home/ol0401/usr/local/Python-2.1/Lib/lib/python2.1/config/Makefile (No
such file or directory)