Re: [Matplotlib-users] Installation issue: python setup.py install --home=... fails

[Russell E. O. <ro...@uw...>]

In article <528...@st...>,
 Michael Droettboom <md...@st...> 
 wrote:

> When you use |--home|, distutils assumes you are referring to a home 
> directory in which you have a tree of libraries in |lib|lib64| living 
> there, so it appends |lib64/python| to the given path:
> 
> |> python setup.py install --home=/foo
> running install
> Checking .pth file supportin  /foo/lib64/python/
> error: can't create or remove files in install directory|
> 
> So the issue is not that your PYTHONPATH doesn't contain 
> |/lsst/home/rowen/code/sandbox/Linux64/external/matplotlib/1.3.1+1| 
> (which it does) but that it doesn't contain 
> |/lsst/home/rowen/code/sandbox/Linux64/external/matplotlib/1.3.1+1/lib/python|
> |.
> 
> With matplotlib 1.2.1, we used raw distutils and not setuptools, which 
> does the same thing without the strict check.  And that does allow users 
> to shoot themselves in the foot, since the check is in fact right when 
> it says things won't work:
> 
> |> git checkout v1.2.1
> > mkdir ~/foo
> > python setup.py install --home=~/foo
> ...
> > PYTHONPATH=~/foo python
> Python2.7.5  (default, Oct8  2013,12:19:40)
> [GCC4.8.1  20130603  (Red Hat4.8.1-1)] on linux2
> Type"help","copyright","credits"  or  "license"  for  more information.
> >>>import  matplotlib
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>    File"<stdin>", line1,in  <module>
> ImportError: No module named matplotlib|
> 
> I think what you really want to use is |--install-lib|, which will 
> install the matplotlib library directly inside of the given path, which 
> (if it's also on the `PYTHONPATH`) it will work.

Thank you. That did it!

For the record, we do actually want the files in <path>/lib/python. So I 
fixed it by manually adding <path>/lib/python to PYTHONPATH before 
running the installer.

It would help if the error message showed which path was expected to be 
on the PYTHONPATH, but now that I know I'm happy.

-- Russell