1 Installation 2 ------------ 3 This is a standard Python Distutil distribution. To install simply run: 4 5 python setup.py install 6 7 This makes Pexpect available to any script on the machine. You need 8 root access to install it this way. If you do not have root access or 9 if you do not wish to install Pexpect so that is available to any script 10 then you can just copy the pexpect.py file to same directory as your script. 11 12 Trouble on Debian and Ubuntu 13 ---------------------------- 14 For some stupid reason Debian Linux does not include the distutils module 15 in the standard 'python' package. Instead, the distutils module is packaged 16 separately in the 'python-dev' package. So to add distutils back 17 into Python, simply use aptitude or apt-get to install 'python-dev'. 18 As root, run this command: 19 apt-get install python-dev 20 Why they do this is mysterious because: 21 - It breaks the Python model of "batteries included". 22 'distutils' isn't an extra or optional module -- 23 it's parts of the Standard Python Library. 24 - The Debian 'python-dev' package is a microscopic 50K installed. 25 So what are they saving? 26 - Distutils is not only interesting to developers. Many non-development 27 oriented Python packages use 'distutils' to install applications. 28 - As far as I can tell, the package maintainers must go through 29 more trouble to remove 'distutils' from the standard Python 30 distribution than it would take just to leave it in. 31 32
