Python – setup.py not installing data files

distutilspythonpython-2.7

I have a Python library that, in addition to regular Python modules, has some data files that need to go in /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-package/mylibrary.

Unfortunately, I have been unable to convince setup.py to actually install the data files there. Note that this behaviour is under install – not sdist.

Here is a slightly redacted version of setup.py

module_list = list_of_files

setup(name         ='Modules',
      version      ='1.33.7',
      description  ='My Sweet Module',
      author       ='PN',
      author_email ='email',
      url          ='url',
      packages     = ['my_module'],

# I tried this. It got installed in /usr/my_module. Not ok.

      # data_files   = [ ("my_module",  ["my_module/data1",
      #                                  "my_module/data2"])]

# This doesn't install it at all.
      package_data = {"my_module" : ["my_module/data1",
                                     "my_module/data2"] }
     )

This is in Python 2.7 (will have to run in 2.6 eventually), and will have to run on some Ubuntu between 10.04 and 12+. Developing it right now on 12.04.

Best Answer

UPD: package_data accepts dict in format {'package': ['list', 'of?', 'globs*']}, so to make it work, one should specify shell globs relative to package dir, not the file paths relative to the distribution root.

data_files has a different meaning, and, in general, one should avoid using this parameter.

With setuptools you only need include_package_data=True, but data files should be under version control system, known to setuptools (by default it recognizes only CVS and SVN, install setuptools-git or setuptools-hg if you use git or hg...)

with setuptools you can:

~~- in MANIFEST.im:~~

~~include my_module/data*~~

- in setup.py:

    setup(
        ...
        include_package_data = True,
        ...
    )

Related Solutions

Python – setup.py

setup.py is a python file, the presence of which is an indication that the module/package you are about to install has likely been packaged and distributed with Distutils, which is the standard for distributing Python Modules.

This allows you to easily install Python packages. Often it's enough to write:

$ pip install .

pip will use setup.py to install your module. Avoid calling setup.py directly.

https://docs.python.org/3/installing/index.html#installing-index

Python setup.py uninstall

Note: Avoid using python setup.py install use pip install .

You need to remove all files manually, and also undo any other stuff that installation did manually.

If you don't know the list of all files, you can reinstall it with the --record option, and take a look at the list this produces.

To record a list of installed files, you can use:

python setup.py install --record files.txt

Once you want to uninstall you can use xargs to do the removal:

xargs rm -rf < files.txt

Or if you're running Windows, use Powershell:

Get-Content files.txt | ForEach-Object {Remove-Item $_ -Recurse -Force}

Then delete also the containing directory, e.g. /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/my_module-0.1.egg/ on macOS. It has no files, but Python will still import an empty module:

>>> import my_module
>>> my_module.__file__
None

Once deleted, Python shows:

>>> import my_module
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'my_module'

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Python – setup.py

Python setup.py uninstall

Related Topic