28.15. distutils — Building and installing Python modules

The distutils package provides support for building and installing additional modules into a Python installation. The new modules may be either 100%-pure Python, or may be extension modules written in C, or may be collections of Python packages which include modules coded in both Python and C.

User documentation and API reference are provided in another document:

See also

Distributing Python Modules

The manual for developers and packagers of Python modules. This describes how to prepare distutils-based packages so that they may be easily installed into an existing Python installation. If also contains instructions for end-users wanting to install a distutils-based package, Installing Python Modules.