Customizing Python Package Directory Layout With Setup.py

Suppose I have the following directory structure: src/ └── python/ └── generated/ ├── __init__.py ├── a.py └── lib/

Solution 1:

Your setup.py should be placed in your src directory and should look like this:

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import setuptools

setuptools.setup(
    name='Thing',
    version='1.2.3',
    packages=[
        'python',
        'python.lib',
    ],
    package_dir={
        'python': 'python/generated',
    },
)

Note the package_dir setting. It instructs setuptools to get the code for the python package from the directory python/generated. In the built distributions you will then find the right directory structure.

Solution 2:

First, here is my solution:

#!/usr/bin/env python

import os, shutil
from setuptools import setup
from setuptools.command.build_py import build_py

class BuildPyCommand(build_py):
  """Custom build command."""

  def run(self):
    shutil.rmtree('src.tmp', ignore_errors=True)
    os.mkdir('src.tmp')
    shutil.copytree('src/python/generated', 'src.tmp/python')
    build_py.run(self)

setup(cmdclass={ 'build_py': BuildPyCommand },
      name='Blabla',
      version='1.0',
      description='best desc ever',
      author='Me',
      packages=['python', 'python.lib'],
      package_dir={'': 'src.tmp'},
      setup_requires=['wheel']
     )

And you can generate your distribution with:

python setup.py build bdist_wheel

The idea is perform a two steps build:

• I generate a valid source structure
• I build this temporary structure

And I deliver it in a wheel because it doesn't require future users to understand my trick. If you give it a try with a source distribution, you will notice that you need to publish the generated files as data (not difficult, but troublesome, and, I guess you will want to hide your tricks from your users).

But, I think that there is a design flaw in your process. The file src/python/generated/__init__.py, assumed to be a module <something>.generated eventually becomes your <something>.python, which is troublesome. It would be much simpler and more robust to generate a valid Python structure: src/generated/python/__init__.py. The setup.py would become trivial and your generator wouldn't be more complex.