automatically setting platform-dependent location for Distutils "install-scripts"?

[jomorcsi at gmail.com]

Hello all,

I am developing a Python-based tool that will be deployed both in a
Windows and in a Linux
environment, and I have a question concerning the use of the Distutils
module to manage the
installation of the tool in a transparent manner.

A bit of background info:
1. (I am using Python version 2.5)
2. Let's assume that the tool is named "xyz"
3. It is internally partitioned into two parts:
    xyzScript.py -- the front-end script that the users actually
invoke, and
    xyzPackage -- a package containing the "guts" of the tool
4. Users do not really care where the "xyzPackage" part is installed
--
    and thus by default it will be installed into Python's standard
"site-packages" directory.
5. However, users *do* care where the "xyzScript.py" part is installed

Now, I have created a Distutils-based "setup.py" script that looks
like this:
from distutils.core import setup

>
> setup(name='xyz',
>       version="1.0",
>       # provide other metadata, such as 'description', 'author', 'author_email', 'url', ... etc.
>
>       packages=['xyzPackage'],
>
>       scripts=['xyzScript.py'])
>

... that takes care of the above concerns, and also accepts a
"setup.cfg" configuration file that
allows the user to control into which directory to install the
"xyzScript.py" part, as follows:

>
> [install]
> install-scripts=C:\xyzScriptDirectory
>

And thus, here is my problem:

[1] At any given moment, the directory name specified in the above
"setup.cfg" file
    can be either a "Windows-style" directory (as is shown above)
    or a "Linux-style" directory (say "/opt/xyzScriptDirectory"), but
not both!

[2] I would like to have a *single* "setup.cfg" file that can
nevertheless be used for *both*
    Windows and Linux, *without* having to be edited by the user.

For example, it would be really nice if I can have a customized
"setup.cfg" file that looks like:

>
> [install]
> install-scripts-Windows=C:\xyzScriptDirectory
> install-scripts-Linux=/opt/xyzScriptDirectory
>

... and then some part of Distutils can query "os.name" and set the
"real" 'install-scripts' option
to the appropriate one of these two choices.

I assume this can be done by "overriding" and customizing part of
Distutils.
Indeed, I have already done something similar by overriding
"distutils.command.build_scripts"
to use a customized "copy_scripts()" method.

However, it is not clear to me in what manner I can/should
override "distutils.command.install_scripts" to achieve the effect
that I desire.

Is this at all the way to go, or might there be a totally obvious way
to do this
that I am currently overlooking?

If anyone has similar experience in tweaking Distutils, I would be
most appreciative of any
advice that you can offer.

Thanks in advance!