What’s the best way to distribute python command-line tools?

Try the entry_points.console_scripts parameter in the setup() call. As described in the setuptools docs, this should do what I think you want.

To reproduce here:

from setuptools import setup

setup(
    # other arguments here...
    entry_points = {
        'console_scripts': [
            'foo = package.module:func',
            'bar = othermodule:somefunc',
        ],
    }
)