Whenever I package a module I distribute and uses
"python setup.py bdist", the resulting zip files
contains the path to my python installation directory
(minus the driver letter under windows).

This means that under windows, the directory in the zip
file is "tools/python/Lib/site-packages/...". Under
linux, it ends up being
"./usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/...".

This is a bother. There is no way for me to know where
the user's actual python will be. USers currently have
to e=unzip in a temp directory and then move the files
to site-packages manually.

I think the zip file should actually remove everything
up to "site-packages". Thus the zip could be unzipped
directly in the correct location.

Or alternately, like sdist, unzip in a temp directory
and have the user run "python setup.py install" on it.

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I recommend not to use the bdist command. Instead, on
Windows, use bdist_wininst. On Linux, either use bdist_rpm,
or refrain from building binary distributions (instead,
instruct users how to build from source).

I am creating packages for PyPI and they all are created wrong. If the module is pure Python - 'bdist' should be equal to 'sdist'.

If the distribution is pure Python, you can upload an sdist to PyPI.

bdist’s behavior is certainly not very useful, but we’re bound by compatibility.  Closing as wontfix.

Let me add that we welcome suggestions about making bdist better in distutils2.

As I can't reopen this issue, I'd like to ask for another opinion before closing this ticket. I think it's closed prematurely. For the bare minimum there should be a link to corresponding issue in distutils2 project.

I am +1 with what Eric said. I'd suggest that you send a mail to teh distutils2 development mailing list to make some proposals.

Distutils2 bugs are tracked here (bugs.python.org), feel free to open a feature request for the Distutils2 component.