Hey @captnswing, noticed your last patch via git blame. I'm not a heavy Python user – does this pull request make sense to you?

It's failing currently for me on debian squeeze and fedora 16. Distributed install puts pip into /usr/bin, not to /usr/local/bin, therefore not_if in pip install never works.

@asergeyev Are you able to get it to work by overriding node['python']['pip']['prefix_dir']?

yes, but IMO it should be tested on platforms and set to correct default one. I wonder if pip installer has clues where it puts stuff to be used in attributes/default.rb

Freebsd with python installed in /usr/local/bin put pip into /usr/local/bin for me. Maybe it's still match to python_prefix... why did you changed it originally?

["freebsd"] => {
"default" => ["python"]

needs to be smarter than

if python['install_method'] == 'package'
default['python']['prefix_dir'] = '/usr'

@asergeyev I changed it because it wasn't working on Ubuntu and there was no way to differentiate between Python's path and pip's.

This solution isn't super intelligent – it pushes the decision out to the cookbook user. I don't necessarily disagree with your opinion that the cookbook should be smarter though.

Interesting... ubuntu has easy_install in /usr/bin and when you install pip it ends up in usr/local

log.info("Installing %s script to %s", script_name, self.script_dir)

Now here:
echo 'import setuptools.command.easy_install as ei; print ei.easy_install.INSTALL_SCHEMES' | python -

gives on fedora:
{'posix': {'install_dir': '$base/lib/python$py_version_short/site-packages', 'script_dir': '$base/bin'}}

on debian squeeze:
{'posix': {'install_dir': '$base/lib/python$py_version_short/site-packages', 'script_dir': '$base/bin'}}

on some ubuntu
{'unix_local': {'install_dir': '$base/local/lib/python$py_version_short/dist-packages', 'script_dir': '$base/local/bin'}, 'posix': {'install_dir': '$base/lib/python$py_version_short/site-packages', 'script_dir': '$base/bin'}, 'deb_system': {'install_dir': '$base/lib/python3/dist-packages', 'script_dir': '$base/bin'}, 'posix_local': {'install_dir': '$base/local/lib/python$py_version_short/dist-packages', 'script_dir': '$base/local/bin'}}

on few versions of freebsd
{'posix': {'install_dir': '$base/lib/python$py_version_short/site-packages', 'script_dir': '$base/bin'}}

let me suggest a patch here...

Looks like you already answered your previous question, but for completeness:

hcastro@graphite:~$ cat /etc/lsb-release 
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=11.10
DISTRIB_CODENAME=oneiric
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 11.10"
hcastro@graphite:~$ which easy_install
/usr/local/bin/easy_install
hcastro@graphite:~$ which pip
/usr/local/bin/pip

I actually don't think I ever checked for easy_install's location pre-install.

https://github.com/asergeyev/python-cookbook/compare/mytakeonit
What do you think about this one?

It's not my call, since I don't work for Opscode or manage their repositories. I think maybe the best approach is to suggest this on JIRA since they probably monitor that more than pull request discussions: http://tickets.opscode.com/browse/COOK-1169

If you'd like you may re-open that ticket and let them know. I'd give them a poke via pull request but their lawyers have put so many rules around "contributing to Opscode cookbooks" discouraging me from doing it.
Thank you a lot for quick collaboration.