INSTALLATION from IDLE fork 0.7.1 : =================================== IDLE Fork Installation on Linux: Until the tarball is released, you must download a CVS copy. An excellent place for it is /usr/local/src/PythonX.X/Tools/idlefork, assuming that's where your Python source is located. Put the correct version in for X.X . # cd /usr/local/src/PythonX.X/Tools Now do the CVS login and checkout: # cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.idlefork.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/idlefork login Type an for the password. # cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.idlefork.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/idlefork \ -d idlefork checkout idle The -d option to checkout puts the files in an idlefork directory, so you don't step on "official" idle. # cd idlefork # su to root # python setup.py install # echo "idle" > /usr/local/lib/pythonX.X/site-packages.pth This last is necessary so idle can find itself. I hope we can create/append this file via setup.py at some point, but it needs to be done manually now, and it only needs to be done once (unless you totally remove and reinstall python itself). # exit from root NOTE that the above procedure will install idlefork IDLE on top of any "official" IDLE that may be already installed.