diff --git a/share/spack/csh/convert-pyext.sh b/share/spack/csh/convert-pyext.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..a48bcdbccaed7bd6f8c6a337f61394918e37adb5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/share/spack/csh/convert-pyext.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+#!/bin/bash --noprofile
+PYEXT_REGEX=".*/.*/package.py"
+
+find var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/ -type f -regextype sed -regex ${PYEXT_REGEX} -exec \
+    sed -i 's/python('\''setup.py'\'', /setup_py(/' {} \;
diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-setuptools/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-setuptools/package.py
index 68032cb68dc406a5ee7b6032a2ba2288cdfc87e0..08d5e5d5526a98fb55a8113048c99f4fcb773686 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-setuptools/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-setuptools/package.py
@@ -24,8 +24,11 @@
 ##############################################################################
 from spack import *
 
+
 class PySetuptools(Package):
-    """Easily download, build, install, upgrade, and uninstall Python packages."""
+    """A Python utility that aids in the process of downloading, building,
+       upgrading, installing, and uninstalling Python packages."""
+
     homepage = "https://pypi.python.org/pypi/setuptools"
     url      = "https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/s/setuptools/setuptools-11.3.tar.gz"
 
@@ -40,4 +43,4 @@ class PySetuptools(Package):
     extends('python')
 
     def install(self, spec, prefix):
-        python('setup.py', 'install', '--prefix=%s' % prefix)
+        setup_py('install', '--prefix=%s' % prefix)