distutils appends '/local' to to user-specified install prefix

[Christopher Williams]

In python2.6 2.6.1-1ubuntu1 on jaunty, distutils has been patched to make a bare 'python setup.py install' use /usr/local instead of /usr (distutils-install-layout.dpatch). The problem is that this also prevents me from using distutils to install a python module to somewhere like /opt/foo. If I run 'python setup.py install --prefix=/opt/foo', the package is installed to /opt/foo/local.

A better solution might be to modify the default prefix to /usr/local and make ubuntu packages override it.

[Sascha Silbe (sascha-ubuntu-launchpad)]

This breaks the whole sugar-jhbuild environment [1] on Ubuntu Jaunty as Python packages will install to the wrong path.

[1] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/DevelopmentTeam/Jhbuild

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package python2.6 - 2.6.1-1ubuntu2

---------------
python2.6 (2.6.1-1ubuntu2) jaunty; urgency=low

  * Update installation schemes: LP: #338395.
    - When the --prefix option is used for setup.py install, Use the
      `unix_prefix' scheme.
    - Use the `deb_system' scheme if --install-layout=deb is specified.
    - Use the the `unix_local' scheme if neither --install-layout=deb
      nor --prefix is specified.
    - The options --install-layout=deb and --prefix are exclusive.
  * Don't fail installation/removal if directories in /usr/local cannot
    be created. LP: #338227.

 -- Matthias Klose <email address hidden> Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:12:34 +0100

[David Huggins-Daines (dhuggins)]

Hmm, this is still broken in python2.6 2.6.4~rc2-0ubuntu1 on karmic!

dhuggins@gorb:~/Projects/Sphinx/sphinxbase/amd64-linux/python$ python2.6 setup.py install --prefix=/usr/local
running install
running build
running build_ext
running install_lib
creating /usr/local/local
error: could not create '/usr/local/local': Permission denied