[Distutils] Problems with setuptools 0.6c11, Mac OS X 10.6, Python 2.4 from MacPorts

[Jeff Shell]

I've been getting strange behavior with trying to use Buildout with
setuptools pinned to 0.6c11 on Mac OS X 10.6, with Python 2.4 built
from MacPorts. I'd constantly get the following error:

    Getting distribution for 'zope.interface==3.5.2'.
    No eggs found in
/var/folders/ta/taVYwGZqHuKHt5V7rcwEzE++-+s/-Tmp-/easy_install-7kLZlO/zope.interface-3.5.2/egg-dist-tmp-dC9GYL
(setup script problem?)

I first noticed it when trying to use a fresh 'bootstrap.py' from
zc.buildout (which I have traditionally not used in our projects), and
tried the 'Use Distribute' option. What was interesting was that
`zope.interface` 3.5.2 was already installed in my eggs directory, and
buildout should not have been trying to get a new one.

So this problem seems to show up with both Distribute (0.6.8?) and
setuptools (0.6c11).

Pinning setuptools to 0.6c9 does not have this problem.

I don't know if this is related, but when comparing the setuptools
0.6c9 and 0.6c11 source trees, I noticed a change in how the Mac OS X
version is looked up:

In setuptools 0.6c11, since the change in `pkg_resources._macosx_vers`
to use `platform.mac_ver`, the MacPorts build(s) of Python 2.4 do not
seem to be reporting any information out of mac_ver(), causing
pkg_resources to report spurious information:

    >>> import platform
    >>> import pkg_resources
    >>> platform.mac_ver()
    ('', ('', '', ''), '')
    >>> pkg_resources.get_supported_platform()
    'macosx--i386'

Notice no Mac OS X version.

In setuptools 0.6c9, pkg_resources.get_supported_platform() reports as follows:

    >>> pkg_resources.get_supported_platform()
    'macosx-10.6-i386'

(The versions of Python 2.5 and 2.6 supplied by Apple report proper
information out of 'platform.mac_ver()', but using those versions
causes other problems as versions of 'twisted' start tripping over
each other, violently)

-- 
Jeff Shell