Multiple Python Installations - both easy_install and pip fail

Question

I have a system-level installation of Python 3.3.3, and I want to set up an installation in user space at /usr/local/python33 as part of a multi-version virtualenv-type setup. I made the directory, and I have attempted to use both easy_install and pip (as easy_install-3.3 and pip-3.3 from the system-level install) to put a copy of Python 3.3.3 there. No joy. The logs from both attempts are shown below. I thought this was supposed to be straightforward, but my confidence if flagging.

EASY_INSTALL

easy_install-3.3 --install-dir="/usr/local/python33" python==3.3.3
Creating /usr/local/python33/site.py
Searching for python==3.3.3
Reading https://pypi.python.org/simple/python/
Reading http://www.python.org
Reading http://www.python.org/2.3
Reading http://www.python.org/2.4
Reading http://www.python.org/2.4.1
Reading http://www.python.org/2.5
Reading http://www.python.org/download/
Best match: Python 3.3.3
Downloading http://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.3.3/Python-3.3.3.tgz
Processing Python-3.3.3.tgz
Writing /var/folders/l0/14nc8kh968l6kqp86s5ddxph0000gn/T/easy_install-3cjpwy/Python-3.3.3/setup.cfg
Running Python-3.3.3/setup.py -q bdist_egg --dist-dir /var/folders/l0/14nc8kh968l6kqp86s5ddxph0000gn/T/easy_install-3cjpwy/Python-3.3.3/egg-dist-tmp-3me0es
error: Setup script exited with error: Modules/Setup: No such file or directory

PIP

pip-3.3 install --target /usr/local/python33 python==3.3.3

You are installing a potentially insecure and unverifiable file. Future versions of pip will default to disallowing insecure files.

  Downloading from URL http://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.3.3/Python-3.3.3.tgz (from http://www.python.org/download/)
  Running setup.py egg_info for package python

    running egg_info
    creating pip-egg-info/Python.egg-info
    writing dependency_links to pip-egg-info/Python.egg-info/dependency_links.txt
    writing top-level names to pip-egg-info/Python.egg-info/top_level.txt
    writing pip-egg-info/Python.egg-info/PKG-INFO
    writing manifest file 'pip-egg-info/Python.egg-info/SOURCES.txt'
    warning: manifest_maker: standard file '-c' not found


    reading manifest file 'pip-egg-info/Python.egg-info/SOURCES.txt'
    writing manifest file 'pip-egg-info/Python.egg-info/SOURCES.txt'
  Source in /private/var/folders/l0/14nc8kh968l6kqp86s5ddxph0000gn/T/pip_build_tipton/python has version 3.3.3, which satisfies requirement python==3.3.3
Installing collected packages: python

  Running setup.py install for python

    Running command /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.3/bin/python3.3 -c "import setuptools;__file__='/private/var/folders/l0/14nc8kh968l6kqp86s5ddxph0000gn/T/pip_build_tipton/python/setup.py';exec(compile(open(__file__).read().replace('\r\n', '\n'), __file__, 'exec'))" install --record /var/folders/l0/14nc8kh968l6kqp86s5ddxph0000gn/T/pip-x_pk9r-record/install-record.txt --single-version-externally-managed --home=/var/folders/l0/14nc8kh968l6kqp86s5ddxph0000gn/T/tmpf4gi0e
    usage: -c [global_opts] cmd1 [cmd1_opts] [cmd2 [cmd2_opts] ...]

       or: -c --help [cmd1 cmd2 ...]

       or: -c --help-commands

       or: -c cmd --help



    error: option --single-version-externally-managed not recognized

Answer 1

Both easy_install and pip are for installing Python packages, not for installing Python itself.

How you install Python depends on your operating system. For Unices you typically run the standard configure; make; make install.