which build tool(s) do you recommend for python?

Question

I'm starting a small/medium-sized python project, likely in Test Driven Development. My backgrounds are more in C and java than python (I used ant and makefile)

I know that in python you might not need a build tool, but I will, because I'll use cython and PyInstaller (the thing should work on a couple of different UNIXes, without depending directly on python) and I'd like the convenience of selecting the tests form CLI, building the docs, maybe check dependencies, etc.

Somebody is complaining that python lacks a make-like tool. I know that few tools exist, like scon and paver, but I'd like to hear from real users and not just their website. Does anybody use paver?

What's about the usual setup.py that comes with many packages? I looked into a few to see if there is a common usage, but I didn't find anything interesting (maybe I used the wrong examples)

Do you recommend sticking with things I already know (ant and Makefile) at least to start? If so, is there any ant extension you recommend for python (+cython+pyinstaller+pyUnit)?

---

EDIT: to avoid further answers like jwp's one, note that, for this project, I absolutely need my program being a standalone executable because it is absolutely impossible to have a python VM on the target platform where the executable will run. I have exactly the same hw available for compiling, so luckly I don't need to cross-compile (but I'd do the development on a more friendly Linux).

I'd also like to test if my code compile in Cython from the beginning, not to premature optimize, but just to be sure that I'm not going too far with the use of incompatible features, which would require a painful refactoring if Cython would be seriously needed.

So please focus on my actual question

Answer 1

If it is at all possible, I'd suggest avoiding extension modules(C/cython) in the beginning. Get your all code written in Python, use a simple distutils based configuration, run your tests using -m (python -m mypkg.test.testall, or whatever; import unittest).

Once you get your project to a comfy state, then start tackling some optimizations with cython and the extra project management that comes with that. distutils can build extension modules, so I'm not sure you'll need make/scons..

 project-dir/
  setup.py
  mypkg/
   __init__.py
   mymod.py
   test/
    __init__.py
    testall.py
    testsomething_specific.py