1Installation 2------------ 3This is a standard Python Distutil distribution. To install simply run: 4 5 python setup.py install 6 7This makes Pexpect available to any script on the machine. You need 8root access to install it this way. If you do not have root access or 9if you do not wish to install Pexpect so that is available to any script 10then you can just copy the pexpect.py file to same directory as your script. 11 12Trouble on Debian and Ubuntu 13---------------------------- 14For some stupid reason Debian Linux does not include the distutils module 15in the standard 'python' package. Instead, the distutils module is packaged 16separately in the 'python-dev' package. So to add distutils back 17into Python, simply use aptitude or apt-get to install 'python-dev'. 18As root, run this command: 19 apt-get install python-dev 20Why 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