[SciPy-user] OS X install success! + Question

[Robert Ferrell]

On Jul 30, 2008, at 8:10 AM, Gael Varoquaux wrote:

> On Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 09:57:07AM -0400, Zachary Pincus wrote:
>> With easy_install, this sort of transparency is a bit lost. You need
>> to look to see which version of python is invoked in the first line  
>> of
>> that script to determine where the files will eventually go. If you
>> have two versions of python, you need two versions of easy_install in
>> different places. I personally find this a bit frustrating...
>
> Hum, are you sure you need two versions of easy_install? Doesn't using
> the "-d" option, or the "--prefix" work? Alternatively, if you don't  
> like
> typing the options all the time, there is a configuration file to  
> set it:
> http://peak.telecommunity.com/DevCenter/EasyInstall#configuration- 
> files

I tried the -d option.  The original (came with OS X) easy_install  
didn't like that.  Here's the complaint:

$> sudo easy_install -v -n -d/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/ 
Versions/2.5/lib/python2.5/site-packages
TEST FAILED: /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/lib/ 
python2.5/site-packages does NOT support .pth files
error: bad install directory or PYTHONPATH

You are attempting to install a package to a directory that is not
on PYTHONPATH and which Python does not read ".pth" files from.  The
installation directory you specified (via --install-dir, --prefix, or
the distutils default setting) was:

     /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/lib/python2.5/ 
site-packages

and your PYTHONPATH environment variable currently contains:

     ''

That's what got me thinking there was some subtlety that I didn't  
appreciate.  Zachary's email explained it.  /Library/Python/2.5/site- 
packages is really for OS X's own python.  Now that I understand  
what's up with OS X I have greater confidence that I'll put future  
packages in the right place.

-robert