How does setup.py work?

[Matias Surdi]

dxm escribió:
> I am a new comer to python.
> I am wondering how setup.py works.
> For example, I have a directory like this:
> /
>    setup.py
>    mymodule.c
> 
> where setup.py is:
> 
> from distutils.core import setup, Extension
> 
> mod = Extension('mymodule', sources = ['mymodule.c'])
> 
> setup (name = 'Package',
>        version = '1.0',
>        description = 'This is a demo package',
>        ext_modules = [mod])
> 
> The correct way to install the newly created extension module is to
> type
> python setup.py install instead of executing those statements in
> python shell, isn't it ?
> My question is how additional arguments like 'build', 'install' are
> passed into python and how
> can I install it from interactively from python shell
> 


Here you can read the documentation of "setuptools" , the package from 
where setup.py comes.

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