How to install or upgrade setuptool on Mac OS

pip requires setuptools and it has to be installed first, before pip can run.

To install setuptools from scratch:

1. Securely download ez_setup.py.
   

2. Then run the following (which may require administrator access):

 

To upgrade a previous install of setuptools or distribute, there are two scenarios.

1. You currently have setuptools or distribute and some version of pip:

   $ pip install --upgrade setuptools

   If you have distribute, this will upgrade to you distribute-0.7.X, which is just a wrapper, that depends on setuptools. The end result will be that you have distribute-0.7.X (which does nothing) and the latest setuptools installed.

2. You currently have setuptools or distribute, but not pip:

   Follow the pip install procedure below, then come back and run:

   $ pip install --upgrade setuptools