Chapter 27. Distributing Extensions and Programs

Python's distutils allows you to package Python programs and extensions in several ways, and to install programs and extensions to work with your Python installation. As I mentioned in "Building and Installing C-Coded Python Extensions" on page 614, distutils also affords the simplest and most effective way to build C-coded extensions you write yourself, even when you are not interested in distributing such extensions to anybody else. This chapter covers distutils, as well as third-party tools that complement distutils and let you package Python programs for distribution as standalone applications, installable on machines with specific hardware and operating systems without a separate installation of Python. A simpler and more powerful way to package Python programs and extensions is offered by the freely downloadable third-party framework covered in "Python Eggs" on page 151.