title: Python pip install fails: invalid command egg_info
body: <p>I find that recently often when I try to install a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_%28programming_language%29">Python</a> package using <em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pip_%28package_manager%29">pip</a></em>, I get the error(s) below.</p>
  
  <p>I found a reference online that one has to use "<em>python2 setup.py install</em>" from the download directory, and indeed find that this will then work if I manually find and download the package (from pypi).</p>
  
  <p>But, I don't know where pip is downloading packages to, and/or why it is failing in this manner.</p>
  
  <p>I tried to do a pip upgrade, but it also failed in a similar manner, with a bunch of "Unknown distribution option" errors (entry_points, zip_safe, test_suite, tests_require)!</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>pip 1.0.1</li>
  <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ActivePython">ActivePython</a> 2.7</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Trying to use ActiveState's pypm fails, because they have a smaller library base, and it doesn't include these packages.</p>
  
  <pre><code>C:\test&gt;pip install requests-oauth
  Downloading/unpacking requests-oauth
    Downloading requests-oauth-0.4.1.tar.gz
    Running setup.py egg_info for package requests-oauth
      E:\Plang\ActivePython\lib\distutils\dist.py:267: UserWarning: Unknown distribution option: 'zip_safe'
        warnings.warn(msg)
      E:\Plang\ActivePython\lib\distutils\dist.py:267: UserWarning: Unknown distribution option: 'install_requires'
        warnings.warn(msg)
      usage: -c [global_opts] cmd1 [cmd1_opts] [cmd2 [cmd2_opts] ...]
         or: -c --help [cmd1 cmd2 ...]
         or: -c --help-commands
         or: -c cmd --help
  
      error: invalid command 'egg_info'
      Complete output from command python setup.py egg_info:
      E:\Plang\ActivePython\lib\distutils\dist.py:267: UserWarning: Unknown distribution option: 'zip_safe'
    warnings.warn(msg)
  
  E:\Plang\ActivePython\lib\distutils\dist.py:267: UserWarning: Unknown distribution option: 'install_requires'
    warnings.warn(msg)
  
  usage: -c [global_opts] cmd1 [cmd1_opts] [cmd2 [cmd2_opts] ...]
     or: -c --help [cmd1 cmd2 ...]
     or: -c --help-commands
     or: -c cmd --help
  
  error: invalid command 'egg_info'
  </code></pre>