best way to install python modules on linux

[Robert Kern]

Fabian Braennstroem wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am pretty new to python and will use it mainly in
> combination with scientific packages. I am running ubuntu
> breezy right now and see that some packages are out of date.
> Do you have any suggestion, how I can get/keep the latest
> python modules (e.g. scipy, numpy,...) on my ubuntu system?
> I.e. does there exist any script/program, which downloads
> and installs automatically the latest stable releases of selected
> modules? It would be nice, if the program can remove the
> installed modules, too!?

You will probably want to look at easy_install.

  http://peak.telecommunity.com/DevCenter/EasyInstall

With easy_install, you could do something like the following:

  $ easy_install TurboGears

and get the TurboGears package and all of its dependencies built and installed
as eggs (the packaging format that easy_install uses; read the page I gave
above). The packages are installed as self-contained bundles, so you can delete
them easily using rm. There are plenty of opportunities for the community (i.e.,
you and I :-)) to contribute utility scripts that make such things easier.

Unfortunately, neither numpy nor scipy will automatically work with the
easy_install script at the moment. However, you can download the source and
build eggs manually once you have the setuptools package installed (setuptools
is the package that provides easy_install). You can then install the built eggs
using easy_install.

> Or would it be easier to stick to apt/deb and create own
> packages ...

Ubuntu is pretty good with keeping up-to-date Python packages, scipy being a
notable exception in your case and mine. I would recommend using the Ubuntu
packages for packages that are relatively less important to you and using
easy_install for the packages for which you need the absolute latest version.

-- 
Robert Kern
robert.kern at gmail.com

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
 that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
 an underlying truth."
  -- Umberto Eco