easy_install broken in os x mavericks

I hardly use easy_install. Nowadays all the python requirements are installed via pip.

IPython is my primary python console. After installing mavericks, I installed IPython and fired IPython console. Following warning message appeared

➜  ~  ipython
/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/IPython/utils/rlineimpl.py:94: RuntimeWarning:
******************************************************************************
libedit detected - readline will not be well behaved, including but not limited to:
   * crashes on tab completion
   * incorrect history navigation
   * corrupting long-lines
   * failure to wrap or indent lines properly
It is highly recommended that you install readline, which is easy_installable:
     easy_install readline
Note that `pip install readline` generally DOES NOT WORK, because
it installs to site-packages, which come *after* lib-dynload in sys.path,
where readline is located.  It must be `easy_install readline`, or to a custom
location on your PYTHONPATH (even --user comes after lib-dyload).
******************************************************************************
  RuntimeWarning)
Python 2.7.5 (default, Aug 25 2013, 00:04:04)
Type "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

IPython complains readline is missing and insisting to use easy_install. Then I tried

➜   ~  sudo easy_install-2.7 --upgrade setuptools
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/easy_install-2.7", line 7, in <module>
    from pkg_resources import load_entry_point
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/pkg_resources.py", line 2797, in <module>
    parse_requirements(__requires__), Environment()
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/pkg_resources.py", line 576, in resolve
    raise DistributionNotFound(req)
pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound: setuptools==0.6c12dev-r88846

I know I can’t use pip, but distribute is already installed.

Now only way to install readline is to use easy_install in Python site-packages. Normally easy_install is installed in /usr/bin.

➜   ~  which easy_install
/usr/bin/easy_install
➜  ~  sudo python /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/easy_install.py readline
Searching for readline
Reading https://pypi.python.org/simple/readline/
Best match: readline 6.2.4.1
Downloading https://pypi.python.org/packages/2.7/r/readline/readline-6.2.4.1-py2.7-macosx-10.7-intel.egg#md5=6ede61046a61219a6d97c44a75853c23
Processing readline-6.2.4.1-py2.7-macosx-10.7-intel.egg
creating /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/readline-6.2.4.1-py2.7-macosx-10.7-intel.egg
Extracting readline-6.2.4.1-py2.7-macosx-10.7-intel.egg to /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages
Adding readline 6.2.4.1 to easy-install.pth file

Installed /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/readline-6.2.4.1-py2.7-macosx-10.7-intel.egg
Processing dependencies for readline
Finished processing dependencies for readline

➜  ~  ipython
Python 2.7.5 (default, Aug 25 2013, 00:04:04)
Type "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

IPython 1.1.0 -- An enhanced Interactive Python.
?         -> Introduction and overview of IPython's features.
%quickref -> Quick reference.
help      -> Python's own help system.
object?   -> Details about 'object', use 'object??' for extra details.

Whenever issue pops up with easy_install and setuptools, remember using easy_install from site packages like sudo python /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/easy_install.py

python easy_install setuptools

See also