setup.py question (newbie)

[Ali Dada]

hi all:

i want to write an application with python, but first i was checking how to set (or let the user choose) the install directory and the application data directory.
i was reading in the documentation "Distributing Python modules" and i understood i should do 2 things to accomplish my 2 objectives (setting the install directory and setting the application data directory):

1) writing a setup.cfg configuration file in the same directory as the setup file and in it i specify the options for the install command (rather than adding them to the cmd prompt) my file went like:
[install]
install-base= C:\Program Files\pirt

2) execute something like:

python setup.py bdist_wininst install install_scripts

to get a windows installer for my application, and in a script i could put the initialization code i want, for now simply creating a directory


but it didn't work. i got an installer but the options were unchangeable: installation directory was C:\Python23\Lib\site-packages\ (not as i specified in setup.cfg) and the script i wrote wasn't run

so in short: how can i, in unix and windows, give default values such as "C:\Program Files\myApp" and "C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data" and let the user have the ability to change them (like in all install scripts), does distutils give me a neat functionality or will i go ahead and write a small python script from scratch??

thanks..

 

[John J. Lee]

[...]

For a better chance of help, 1. turn on line-wrapping (ATM a single
paragraph is on a single line, which is hard to read for many people),
2. post your setup.py (not as an attachment, in the body text). And,
of course, try to persuade your newsreader not to mangle any source
code you post


John