[SciPy-dev] what the heck is an egg ;-)

[Matthieu Brucher]

Hi,

Eggs are a package containing binaries for the package. They are made with
setuptools which is what will more or less replace distutils.
When you install setuptools, you get a new script, easy_install.py that can
be executed with the name of the package you want to install as a parameter.
Then, it looks on http://pypi.python.org/ by default to get a matching
package with its dependencies. A kind of CPAN, but for Python.

Matthieu

2007/11/30, Joe Harrington <jh at physics.ucf.edu>:
>
> A lot of the add-on software for numpy/scipy is distributed using novel
> Python install processes (eggs, setup.py) rather than tarballs or the
> preferred OS-native installers (dpkg, rpm, etc.).  I'm sure they are
> described, perhaps even well, in other places, but, since scipy.org is
> our portal, I think it would be good to have a few-line description of
> each method on the Download page and a link to more detailed
> descriptions elsewhere (or on subsidiary pages).  An example of
> installing a package many will want, like mayavi2, would be great.
>
> In particular, many sysadmins (who might be considering a user's request
> for an install and know nothing about python) get nervous when package
> managers other than the native one for the OS start mucking around in
> the system directories, and are hesitant to use something like eggs.
> Some statements describing what they do and where they put stuff would
> be good (like, a guarrantee that they only tread in certain
> directories).  How to update and how to completely remove a package
> would be good.  Is there a way to have them check periodically for
> updates?  Of course, a statement near the top of why these methods are
> used rather than the native OS installers would help a lot.
>
> Thanks,
>
> --jh--
>
>
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French PhD student
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