These are the most common commands when installing packages Install package (In the current environment's lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages folder) python setup.py install or pip install . "Install" by linking the current folder. Allows continuing developement without having to reinstall the package each time python setup.py develop Build and "egg" (a specially named zipped file) that can be sent to other people python setup.py bdist_egg The other person installs it with: egginst PATH/TO/EGGFILE You'll find more documentation at "How To Package Your Python Code": http://python-packaging.readthedocs.org/en/latest/