python - Difference between entry_points/console_scripts and scripts in setup.py?

Question

There are basically two ways to install Python console scripts to my path by setup.py:

setup(
    ...
    entry_points = {
        'console_scripts': [
            'foo = package.module:func',
        ],
    }
)

and

setup(
    ...
    scripts = [
        'scripts/myscript.sh'
    ]
)

What are the differences? I see the first approach allows me to choose nice, specific name for my script, but are there any other differences? Different original purposes, compatibility (setuptools, distutils, ...?), usage, ...? I am quite confused and a nice elaborated reply could help me (and probably also others) to properly understand all this.

Update: Since I asked the question PyPA published these cool docs on the topic.

Answer 1

The docs for the (awesome) Click package suggest a few reasons to use entry points instead of scripts, including

1. cross-platform compatibility and
2. avoiding having the interpreter assign __name__ to __main__, which could cause code to be imported twice (if another module imports your script)

Click is a nice way to implement functions for use as entry_points, btw.