Language for cross-platform install script

In writing an install script, I quickly found that I'd have cross-platform issues, and bash scripts are hard to maintai开发者_JAVA百科n. I decided to look for a cleaner solution that's more cross-platform.

The goal is to have an intelligent script sniff out components of the user's system and have as little user interaction as possible. That being stated, I thought about these languages:

• Python- cross-platform, and many other programs rely on it, so it may already be present
• Javascript- nodejs is required by part of my application, but it's a little clunky for exec calls

Are there any languages that would be a better fit for this application?

Requirements:

• Available on all platforms
  • May be distributed as part of my application if small enough
  • Little to no version variation, so Ruby is out
  • *nix only for now, but eventually will be run on Windows
• Maintainable
  • Clear syntax (Perl is out)
  • Modular (if I sniff the OS, I can include separate OS-specific code)
• Capable of downloading files (unmet dependencies)
• Capable of relatively complex scripting tasks
  • Testing for used HTTP ports
  • Reading and parsing files for configuration data
  • Checking for permissions and changing directories of insufficient privileges
• Open source

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Python can do all of those things:

• Available on all platforms (Mac, Linux, Windows, and more)
  • May be distributed as part of my application if small enough (You can make binaries with cx_freeze, if needed)
  • Little to no version variation, so Ruby is out (Python is pretty static when it comes to version changes)
  • *nix only for now, but eventually will be run on Windows (It comes pre-installed on Mac, and ships with just about any Linux distro. Binaries don't need the interpreter to run)
• Maintainable
  • Clear syntax (Perl is out) (Python is very easy to read, but that's up to you to decide)
  • Modular (if I sniff the OS, I can include separate OS-specific code) (Modules are just files in Python)
• Capable of downloading files (unmet dependencies) (Urllib2 takes care of that, and it's pre-installed)
• Open source (Yep)

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Ant will do what you need. It is OS independent and will allow compiles and installs.