Pyg’s features

Pyg can:

  • install packages from .tar.gz, .tar.bz2, .zip archives, as well as from .egg files and .pybundle files.
  • Uninstall packages.
  • Define fixed sets of requirement.
  • Perform searches on PyPI.
  • Install from binaries (e.g. from .exe or .msi) on Windows.
  • Install packages in editable mode from VCS (Git, Mercurial, Bazaar, Svn).

Currently Pyg don’t:

  • understand Setuptools extras (like package[extra]). This is planned for Pyg 1.0.

Pyg compared to easy_install

Pyg is meant to be a replacement for easy_install, and tries to improve it. In particular:

  • It can install packages from a name, URL, local directory or file.
  • It supports installation from requirements files.
  • It can install packages from Pip’s bundels.
  • Easy yet very powerful uninstallation of packages.
  • It can perform searches on PyPI.
  • It offers the possibility to download a package without installing it.
  • Source code concise and cohesive and easily extensible.
  • Pyg can used either as a command-line tool or a Python library.
  • The output on the console should be useful.

But at the moment Pyg does not do everything that easy_install does:

  • It does not support Setuptools extras (like package[extra]). This is planned for Pyg 1.0.

Pyg compared to Pip

Pyg is very similar to Pip but tries to improve something. Specifically:

  • Pyg uses the same installation method as Pip but a different package discovery system that should be faster.
  • Pyg supports Python Eggs installation, while Pip doesn’t.
  • A better uninstallation of packages (Pip cannot install packages installed with python setup.py install).

In addition to that, Pyg is completely useable under vitualenvs.

Uninstall

Pyg can uninstall most installed packages with:

$ pyg uninstall packname

It tries to detect the directory where the packages have been installed and delete them. Pyg can uninstall all packages, except those that have been installed in editable mode.

See also: Uninstalling.

Package upgrading

This is a feature unique to Pyg: by running pyg update you can check all your installed packages and upgrade those for which there is a newer release. Pyg collects all packages that can upgrade and then check for updates.

See also: Upgrading installed packages.

Pyg and virtualenv

New in version 0.5.

From Pyg 0.5 onwards, virtualenv is completely supported. You can easily manage packages from inside it. A little example:

$ virtualenv env -p /usr/bin/python2.6 --no-site-packages
Running virtualenv with interpreter /usr/bin/python2.6
New python executable in env/bin/python2.6
Also creating executable in env/bin/python
Installing setuptools............................done.
$ cd env
$ source bin/activate
(env)$ curl -O https://github.com/rubik/pyg/raw/master/get_pyg.py
(env)$ python get_pyg.py
(env)$ pyg install sphinx
Looking for sphinx releases on PyPI
Best match: Sphinx==1.0.7
Downloading Sphinx
Checking md5 sum
Running setup.py egg_info for Sphinx
Running setup.py install for Sphinx
Installing dependencies...
Installing Jinja2>=2.2 (from Sphinx==1.0.7)
        Looking for Jinja2 releases on PyPI
        Best match: Jinja2==2.5.5
        Downloading Jinja2
        Checking md5 sum
        Running setup.py egg_info for Jinja2
        Running setup.py install for Jinja2
        Installing dependencies...
Installing Babel>=0.8 (from Jinja2==2.2)
        Looking for Babel releases on PyPI
        Best match: Babel==0.9.6
        Downloading Babel
        Checking md5 sum
        Running setup.py egg_info for Babel
        Running setup.py install for Babel
        Babel installed successfully
Finished installing dependencies
Jinja2 installed successfully
Installing docutils>=0.5 (from Sphinx==1.0.7)
        Looking for docutils releases on PyPI
        Best match: docutils==0.7
        Downloading docutils
        Checking md5 sum
        Running setup.py egg_info for docutils
        Running setup.py install for docutils
        docutils installed successfully
Installing Pygments>=0.8 (from Sphinx==1.0.7)
        Looking for Pygments releases on PyPI
        Best match: Pygments==1.4
        Downloading Pygments
        Checking md5 sum
        Running setup.py egg_info for Pygments
        Running setup.py install for Pygments
        Pygments installed successfully
Finished installing dependencies
Sphinx installed successfully
(env)$ python
Python 2.6.6 (r266:84292, Mar 25 2011, 19:24:58)
[GCC 4.5.2] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import sphinx
>>> sphinx.__version__
'1.0.7'
>>>
(env)$ pyg remove sphinx
Uninstalling sphinx
        env/lib/python2.6/site-packages/Sphinx-1.0.7-py2.6.egg-info
        env/bin/sphinx-quickstart
        env/lib/python2.6/site-packages/sphinx
        env/bin/sphinx-build
        env/bin/sphinx-autogen
Proceed? (y/[n]) y
Removing egg path from easy_install.pth...
sphinx uninstalled succesfully

Pyg Shell

You can launch Pyg Shell with:

$ pyg shell

and it will open a shell where you can use all Pyg’s command. This is particularly useful on when you need root privileges to installs packages (e.g. Unix): if you need to execute many commands you can fire up the shell and then use Pyg without worrying about root privileges.

See also: Pyg Shell.

Bundles

Pyg supports Pip’s bundles. The bundle format is specific to Pip (see Pip documentation). Once you have one you can install it like:

$ pyg install yourbundle.pyb

The internet access is not necessary. In addition to that, you can easily create bundles with Pyg. For example, if you want to create a bundle of Pyg, you would do:

$ pyg bundle pyg-bundle.pyb pyg

See also: Bundles.

Packs

New in version 0.7.

Packs are very similar to bundles, except that they can contain Python executables too. Packs were invented by Fabien Devaux for the Zicbee project (check it at PyPI: Zicbee).

A pack contains a folder in which there is an egg (with all necessary packages) and some Python executable files (run_name.py). You can unpack the pack and then run the executables without touching the egg! Like a bundle, a pack does not require an internet connection to work: all required package are inside the zipped egg. The advantage of packs over bundles is that you can run included Python executables without installing the library, because everything necessary is included in the egg!

See also: Packs.

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