Problems with pkg_resources

[Skip Montanaro]

I'm trying to get setup to work on pylint source.  I've installed
pylint, logilab-common and astroid in the usual manner, specifying
--user to get them into my private space:

    python setup.py install --user

If I attempt to import astroid from a Python prompt, everything's
fine:

% PYTHONPATH=/home/skipm/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages python
Python 2.7.2 (default, Oct 17 2012, 03:11:33)
[GCC 4.4.6 [TWW]] on sunos5
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import astroid
>>> astroid.__file__
'/home/skipm/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/astroid-0.24.3-py2.7.egg/astroid/__init__.pyc'

but pylint can't find it:

% PYTHONPATH=/home/skipm/3rdParty/astroid pylint Traceback (most
recent call last):
  File "/home/skipm/.local/bin/pylint", line 6, in <module>
    from pkg_resources import load_entry_point
  File "/opt/TWWfsw/distribute06/lib/python27/pkg_resources.py", line
2709, in <module>
    working_set.require(__requires__)
  File "/opt/TWWfsw/distribute06/lib/python27/pkg_resources.py", line
686, in require
    needed = self.resolve(parse_requirements(requirements))
  File "/opt/TWWfsw/distribute06/lib/python27/pkg_resources.py", line
584, in resolve
    raise DistributionNotFound(req)
pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound: logilab-astroid>=0.24.3

How do I work around this problem?  I'd rather be hacking on pylint
than struggling with distutils.

Thx,

Skip