Comand of the day: python-stdeb
Today’s command is not a command in itself but a package that enables installing whatever python package the Debian way, with a Debian package, even if there is no such package.
Lately while doing doing things in python you often find packages that are not available in debian/ubuntu but they recommend you to install them using easy_install, pip or pypi. I avoided doing so because they mess with the system files, and system files in Debian should be controlled by the Debian packaging system.
But I found a fantastic solution by reading a side note to an answer in a stack overflow: Installing python-stdeb.
So we can do:
$ sudo apt-get install python-stdeb
This will add an additional option to pypi installer so that whenever you do:
$ pypi-install a-python-package
Instead of installing the package directly under /usr or /usr/local,
it builds a Debian package and installs it. Neat!!
Now I can feel more adventurous when installing new python packages. And I have more reasons to push my own packages to the Python Package Index.