Using the MSI installer on Windows: Setting PATH and Setuptools

[Prasad, Ramit]

cython at m.allo.ws wrote:
> Hello All,
> 
> I really hate Windows, and I have only intermittent access to Windows machines right now.
> 
> When I install Python 2.7 on Windows using the MSI installer, it definitely does not modify the PATH
> variable. So I modify the PATH variable myself as follows:
> 
> setx PATH %PATH%;C:\Python27\
> 
> Question 1: The command above requires a reboot in order to take effect, at least on Windows 8. How do
> I make it take effect immediately? Maybe if I repeat the same command again with 'set' instead of
> 'setx'? Does 'set' affect the whole machine, or only the current CMD.EXE session?

Set affects current session only.

"""
Setx provides the only command-line or programmatic way to directly and permanently set system environment values. System environment variables are manually configurable through Control Panel or through a registry editor. The set command, which is internal to the command interpreter (Cmd.exe), sets user environment variables for the current console window only.
""" ~ http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc755104.aspx

Setx should not require a reboot, but might require user 
to log out and back in (or restart CMD). Also, note that
it modifies local environment by default and not system
environment.

[snip]

> 
> Question 3: Does the Windows MSI installer from Python.org include Setuptools? python-guide.org
> implies that it does not include Setuptools, but I have never needed to manually install Setuptools, I
> am always able to use easy_install right away. Is my memory warped, or perhaps tainted by old Python
> installs on the same machine?

ActiveState's ActivePython MSI does include pip. FAQ says 
it also includes distribute which you could remove 
(I am guessing) but it will stop PyPM from working. 
I believe they also setup the PATH for you. I think
ActivePython might be a slightly better installer for
Windows users--at least that is what some people have 
recommended. I have not tried it myself, but it might
be worth taking a look.

> 
> Question 4: If the Windows MSI installer indeed lacks Setuptools, what is the best way to install it
> from the command line in a future-proof manner (on Windows)? I am imagining something like this:
> 
> wget https://bitbucket.org/pypa/setuptools/raw/bootstrap/ez_setup.py
> python ez_setup.py
> 
> However, (1) wget is not a Windows command. What is the Windows command? And (2) is that URL the best
> possible URL? Or will that URL only download an old version, and there is a better URL for new
> versions?

The pip documentation uses the URL https://raw.github.com/pypa/pip/master/contrib/get-pip.py

pip documentation: https://pip.readthedocs.org/en/latest/installing.html 
 
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Zak


~Ramit



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