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<div class="section" id="writing-the-setup-script">
<span id="setup-script"></span><h1>2. Writing the Setup Script<a class="headerlink" href="#writing-the-setup-script" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p>The setup script is the centre of all activity in building, distributing, and
installing modules using the Distutils. The main purpose of the setup script is
to describe your module distribution to the Distutils, so that the various
commands that operate on your modules do the right thing. As we saw in section
<a class="reference external" href="introduction.html#distutils-simple-example"><em>A Simple Example</em></a> above, the setup script consists mainly of a call to
<tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">setup()</span></tt>, and most information supplied to the Distutils by the module
developer is supplied as keyword arguments to <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">setup()</span></tt>.</p>
<p>Here’s a slightly more involved example, which we’ll follow for the next couple
of sections: the Distutils’ own setup script. (Keep in mind that although the
Distutils are included with Python 1.6 and later, they also have an independent
existence so that Python 1.5.2 users can use them to install other module
distributions. The Distutils’ own setup script, shown here, is used to install
the package into Python 1.5.2.)</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="c">#!/usr/bin/env python</span>
<span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">distutils.core</span> <span class="kn">import</span> <span class="n">setup</span>
<span class="n">setup</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">'Distutils'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">version</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">'1.0'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">description</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">'Python Distribution Utilities'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">author</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">'Greg Ward'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">author_email</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">'gward@python.net'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">url</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">'http://www.python.org/sigs/distutils-sig/'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">packages</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'distutils'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'distutils.command'</span><span class="p">],</span>
<span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>There are only two differences between this and the trivial one-file
distribution presented in section <a class="reference external" href="introduction.html#distutils-simple-example"><em>A Simple Example</em></a>: more metadata, and the
specification of pure Python modules by package, rather than by module. This is
important since the Distutils consist of a couple of dozen modules split into
(so far) two packages; an explicit list of every module would be tedious to
generate and difficult to maintain. For more information on the additional
meta-data, see section <a class="reference internal" href="#meta-data"><em>Additional meta-data</em></a>.</p>
<p>Note that any pathnames (files or directories) supplied in the setup script
should be written using the Unix convention, i.e. slash-separated. The
Distutils will take care of converting this platform-neutral representation into
whatever is appropriate on your current platform before actually using the
pathname. This makes your setup script portable across operating systems, which
of course is one of the major goals of the Distutils. In this spirit, all
pathnames in this document are slash-separated.</p>
<p>This, of course, only applies to pathnames given to Distutils functions. If
you, for example, use standard Python functions such as <a title="glob.glob" class="reference external" href="../library/glob.html#glob.glob"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">glob.glob()</span></tt></a> or
<a title="os.listdir" class="reference external" href="../library/os.html#os.listdir"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.listdir()</span></tt></a> to specify files, you should be careful to write portable
code instead of hardcoding path separators:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">glob</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">glob</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">os</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">path</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">join</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'mydir'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'subdir'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'*.html'</span><span class="p">))</span>
<span class="n">os</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">listdir</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">os</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">path</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">join</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'mydir'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'subdir'</span><span class="p">))</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="listing-whole-packages">
<span id="listing-packages"></span><h2>2.1. Listing whole packages<a class="headerlink" href="#listing-whole-packages" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>The <em class="xref">packages</em> option tells the Distutils to process (build, distribute,
install, etc.) all pure Python modules found in each package mentioned in the
<em class="xref">packages</em> list. In order to do this, of course, there has to be a
correspondence between package names and directories in the filesystem. The
default correspondence is the most obvious one, i.e. package <a title="Support for building and installing Python modules into an existing Python installation." class="reference external" href="../library/distutils.html#module-distutils"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">distutils</span></tt></a> is
found in the directory <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">distutils</span></tt> relative to the distribution root.
Thus, when you say <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">packages</span> <span class="pre">=</span> <span class="pre">['foo']</span></tt> in your setup script, you are
promising that the Distutils will find a file <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">foo/__init__.py</span></tt> (which
might be spelled differently on your system, but you get the idea) relative to
the directory where your setup script lives. If you break this promise, the
Distutils will issue a warning but still process the broken package anyways.</p>
<p>If you use a different convention to lay out your source directory, that’s no
problem: you just have to supply the <em class="xref">package_dir</em> option to tell the
Distutils about your convention. For example, say you keep all Python source
under <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">lib</span></tt>, so that modules in the “root package” (i.e., not in any
package at all) are in <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">lib</span></tt>, modules in the <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">foo</span></tt> package are in
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">lib/foo</span></tt>, and so forth. Then you would put</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">package_dir</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">{</span><span class="s">''</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s">'lib'</span><span class="p">}</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>in your setup script. The keys to this dictionary are package names, and an
empty package name stands for the root package. The values are directory names
relative to your distribution root. In this case, when you say <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">packages</span> <span class="pre">=</span>
<span class="pre">['foo']</span></tt>, you are promising that the file <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">lib/foo/__init__.py</span></tt> exists.</p>
<p>Another possible convention is to put the <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">foo</span></tt> package right in
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">lib</span></tt>, the <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">foo.bar</span></tt> package in <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">lib/bar</span></tt>, etc. This would be
written in the setup script as</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">package_dir</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">{</span><span class="s">'foo'</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s">'lib'</span><span class="p">}</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>A <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">package:</span> <span class="pre">dir</span></tt> entry in the <em class="xref">package_dir</em> dictionary implicitly
applies to all packages below <em>package</em>, so the <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">foo.bar</span></tt> case is
automatically handled here. In this example, having <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">packages</span> <span class="pre">=</span> <span class="pre">['foo',</span>
<span class="pre">'foo.bar']</span></tt> tells the Distutils to look for <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">lib/__init__.py</span></tt> and
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">lib/bar/__init__.py</span></tt>. (Keep in mind that although <em class="xref">package_dir</em>
applies recursively, you must explicitly list all packages in
<em class="xref">packages</em>: the Distutils will <em>not</em> recursively scan your source tree
looking for any directory with an <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">__init__.py</span></tt> file.)</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="listing-individual-modules">
<span id="listing-modules"></span><h2>2.2. Listing individual modules<a class="headerlink" href="#listing-individual-modules" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>For a small module distribution, you might prefer to list all modules rather
than listing packages—especially the case of a single module that goes in the
“root package” (i.e., no package at all). This simplest case was shown in
section <a class="reference external" href="introduction.html#distutils-simple-example"><em>A Simple Example</em></a>; here is a slightly more involved example:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">py_modules</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'mod1'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'pkg.mod2'</span><span class="p">]</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>This describes two modules, one of them in the “root” package, the other in the
<tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">pkg</span></tt> package. Again, the default package/directory layout implies that
these two modules can be found in <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">mod1.py</span></tt> and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pkg/mod2.py</span></tt>, and
that <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pkg/__init__.py</span></tt> exists as well. And again, you can override the
package/directory correspondence using the <em class="xref">package_dir</em> option.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="describing-extension-modules">
<span id="describing-extensions"></span><h2>2.3. Describing extension modules<a class="headerlink" href="#describing-extension-modules" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Just as writing Python extension modules is a bit more complicated than writing
pure Python modules, describing them to the Distutils is a bit more complicated.
Unlike pure modules, it’s not enough just to list modules or packages and expect
the Distutils to go out and find the right files; you have to specify the
extension name, source file(s), and any compile/link requirements (include
directories, libraries to link with, etc.).</p>
<p>All of this is done through another keyword argument to <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">setup()</span></tt>, the
<em class="xref">ext_modules</em> option. <em class="xref">ext_modules</em> is just a list of
<tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Extension</span></tt> instances, each of which describes a single extension module.
Suppose your distribution includes a single extension, called <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">foo</span></tt> and
implemented by <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">foo.c</span></tt>. If no additional instructions to the
compiler/linker are needed, describing this extension is quite simple:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">Extension</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'foo'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'foo.c'</span><span class="p">])</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Extension</span></tt> class can be imported from <a title="The core Distutils functionality" class="reference external" href="apiref.html#module-distutils.core"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">distutils.core</span></tt></a> along
with <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">setup()</span></tt>. Thus, the setup script for a module distribution that
contains only this one extension and nothing else might be:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">distutils.core</span> <span class="kn">import</span> <span class="n">setup</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">Extension</span>
<span class="n">setup</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">'foo'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">version</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">'1.0'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">ext_modules</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">Extension</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'foo'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'foo.c'</span><span class="p">])],</span>
<span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Extension</span></tt> class (actually, the underlying extension-building
machinery implemented by the <strong>build_ext</strong> command) supports a great deal
of flexibility in describing Python extensions, which is explained in the
following sections.</p>
<div class="section" id="extension-names-and-packages">
<h3>2.3.1. Extension names and packages<a class="headerlink" href="#extension-names-and-packages" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>The first argument to the <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Extension</span></tt> constructor is always the name of
the extension, including any package names. For example,</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">Extension</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'foo'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'src/foo1.c'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'src/foo2.c'</span><span class="p">])</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>describes an extension that lives in the root package, while</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">Extension</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'pkg.foo'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'src/foo1.c'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'src/foo2.c'</span><span class="p">])</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>describes the same extension in the <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">pkg</span></tt> package. The source files and
resulting object code are identical in both cases; the only difference is where
in the filesystem (and therefore where in Python’s namespace hierarchy) the
resulting extension lives.</p>
<p>If you have a number of extensions all in the same package (or all under the
same base package), use the <em class="xref">ext_package</em> keyword argument to
<tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">setup()</span></tt>. For example,</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">setup</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">...</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">ext_package</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">'pkg'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">ext_modules</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">Extension</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'foo'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'foo.c'</span><span class="p">]),</span>
<span class="n">Extension</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'subpkg.bar'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'bar.c'</span><span class="p">])],</span>
<span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>will compile <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">foo.c</span></tt> to the extension <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">pkg.foo</span></tt>, and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">bar.c</span></tt> to
<tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">pkg.subpkg.bar</span></tt>.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="extension-source-files">
<h3>2.3.2. Extension source files<a class="headerlink" href="#extension-source-files" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>The second argument to the <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Extension</span></tt> constructor is a list of source
files. Since the Distutils currently only support C, C++, and Objective-C
extensions, these are normally C/C++/Objective-C source files. (Be sure to use
appropriate extensions to distinguish C++source files: <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">.cc</span></tt> and
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">.cpp</span></tt> seem to be recognized by both Unix and Windows compilers.)</p>
<p>However, you can also include SWIG interface (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">.i</span></tt>) files in the list; the
<strong>build_ext</strong> command knows how to deal with SWIG extensions: it will run
SWIG on the interface file and compile the resulting C/C++ file into your
extension.</p>
<p>This warning notwithstanding, options to SWIG can be currently passed like
this:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">setup</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">...</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">ext_modules</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">Extension</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'_foo'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'foo.i'</span><span class="p">],</span>
<span class="n">swig_opts</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'-modern'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'-I../include'</span><span class="p">])],</span>
<span class="n">py_modules</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'foo'</span><span class="p">],</span>
<span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Or on the commandline like this:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><pre>> python setup.py build_ext --swig-opts="-modern -I../include"</pre>
</div>
<p>On some platforms, you can include non-source files that are processed by the
compiler and included in your extension. Currently, this just means Windows
message text (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">.mc</span></tt>) files and resource definition (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">.rc</span></tt>) files for
Visual C++. These will be compiled to binary resource (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">.res</span></tt>) files and
linked into the executable.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="preprocessor-options">
<h3>2.3.3. Preprocessor options<a class="headerlink" href="#preprocessor-options" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>Three optional arguments to <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Extension</span></tt> will help if you need to specify
include directories to search or preprocessor macros to define/undefine:
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">include_dirs</span></tt>, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">define_macros</span></tt>, and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">undef_macros</span></tt>.</p>
<p>For example, if your extension requires header files in the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">include</span></tt>
directory under your distribution root, use the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">include_dirs</span></tt> option:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">Extension</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'foo'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'foo.c'</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="n">include_dirs</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'include'</span><span class="p">])</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>You can specify absolute directories there; if you know that your extension will
only be built on Unix systems with X11R6 installed to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">/usr</span></tt>, you can get
away with</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">Extension</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'foo'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'foo.c'</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="n">include_dirs</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'/usr/include/X11'</span><span class="p">])</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>You should avoid this sort of non-portable usage if you plan to distribute your
code: it’s probably better to write C code like</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="c">#include <X11/Xlib.h></span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>If you need to include header files from some other Python extension, you can
take advantage of the fact that header files are installed in a consistent way
by the Distutils <strong>install_header</strong> command. For example, the Numerical
Python header files are installed (on a standard Unix installation) to
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">/usr/local/include/python1.5/Numerical</span></tt>. (The exact location will differ
according to your platform and Python installation.) Since the Python include
directory—<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">/usr/local/include/python1.5</span></tt> in this case—is always
included in the search path when building Python extensions, the best approach
is to write C code like</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="c">#include <Numerical/arrayobject.h></span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>If you must put the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Numerical</span></tt> include directory right into your header
search path, though, you can find that directory using the Distutils
<a title="Low-level access to configuration information of the Python interpreter." class="reference external" href="apiref.html#module-distutils.sysconfig"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">distutils.sysconfig</span></tt></a> module:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">distutils.sysconfig</span> <span class="kn">import</span> <span class="n">get_python_inc</span>
<span class="n">incdir</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">os</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">path</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">join</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">get_python_inc</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">plat_specific</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="s">'Numerical'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">setup</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">...</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">Extension</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">...</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">include_dirs</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">incdir</span><span class="p">]),</span>
<span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Even though this is quite portable—it will work on any Python installation,
regardless of platform—it’s probably easier to just write your C code in the
sensible way.</p>
<p>You can define and undefine pre-processor macros with the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">define_macros</span></tt> and
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">undef_macros</span></tt> options. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">define_macros</span></tt> takes a list of <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">(name,</span> <span class="pre">value)</span></tt>
tuples, where <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">name</span></tt> is the name of the macro to define (a string) and
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">value</span></tt> is its value: either a string or <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt>. (Defining a macro <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">FOO</span></tt>
to <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt> is the equivalent of a bare <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">#define</span> <span class="pre">FOO</span></tt> in your C source: with
most compilers, this sets <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">FOO</span></tt> to the string <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">1</span></tt>.) <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">undef_macros</span></tt> is
just a list of macros to undefine.</p>
<p>For example:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">Extension</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">...</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">define_macros</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">[(</span><span class="s">'NDEBUG'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'1'</span><span class="p">),</span>
<span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'HAVE_STRFTIME'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="bp">None</span><span class="p">)],</span>
<span class="n">undef_macros</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'HAVE_FOO'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'HAVE_BAR'</span><span class="p">])</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>is the equivalent of having this at the top of every C source file:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="c">#define NDEBUG 1</span>
<span class="c">#define HAVE_STRFTIME</span>
<span class="c">#undef HAVE_FOO</span>
<span class="c">#undef HAVE_BAR</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="library-options">
<h3>2.3.4. Library options<a class="headerlink" href="#library-options" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>You can also specify the libraries to link against when building your extension,
and the directories to search for those libraries. The <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">libraries</span></tt> option is
a list of libraries to link against, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">library_dirs</span></tt> is a list of directories
to search for libraries at link-time, and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">runtime_library_dirs</span></tt> is a list of
directories to search for shared (dynamically loaded) libraries at run-time.</p>
<p>For example, if you need to link against libraries known to be in the standard
library search path on target systems</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">Extension</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">...</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">libraries</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'gdbm'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'readline'</span><span class="p">])</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>If you need to link with libraries in a non-standard location, you’ll have to
include the location in <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">library_dirs</span></tt>:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">Extension</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">...</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">library_dirs</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'/usr/X11R6/lib'</span><span class="p">],</span>
<span class="n">libraries</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'X11'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'Xt'</span><span class="p">])</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>(Again, this sort of non-portable construct should be avoided if you intend to
distribute your code.)</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="other-options">
<h3>2.3.5. Other options<a class="headerlink" href="#other-options" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>There are still some other options which can be used to handle special cases.</p>
<p>The <em class="xref">optional</em> option is a boolean; if it is true,
a build failure in the extension will not abort the build process, but
instead simply not install the failing extension.</p>
<p>The <em class="xref">extra_objects</em> option is a list of object files to be passed to the
linker. These files must not have extensions, as the default extension for the
compiler is used.</p>
<p><em class="xref">extra_compile_args</em> and <em class="xref">extra_link_args</em> can be used to
specify additional command line options for the respective compiler and linker
command lines.</p>
<p><em class="xref">export_symbols</em> is only useful on Windows. It can contain a list of
symbols (functions or variables) to be exported. This option is not needed when
building compiled extensions: Distutils will automatically add <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">initmodule</span></tt>
to the list of exported symbols.</p>
<p>The <em class="xref">depends</em> option is a list of files that the extension depends on
(for example header files). The build command will call the compiler on the
sources to rebuild extension if any on this files has been modified since the
previous build.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="relationships-between-distributions-and-packages">
<h2>2.4. Relationships between Distributions and Packages<a class="headerlink" href="#relationships-between-distributions-and-packages" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>A distribution may relate to packages in three specific ways:</p>
<ol class="arabic simple">
<li>It can require packages or modules.</li>
<li>It can provide packages or modules.</li>
<li>It can obsolete packages or modules.</li>
</ol>
<p>These relationships can be specified using keyword arguments to the
<a title="distutils.core.setup" class="reference external" href="apiref.html#distutils.core.setup"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">distutils.core.setup()</span></tt></a> function.</p>
<p>Dependencies on other Python modules and packages can be specified by supplying
the <em>requires</em> keyword argument to <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">setup()</span></tt>. The value must be a list of
strings. Each string specifies a package that is required, and optionally what
versions are sufficient.</p>
<p>To specify that any version of a module or package is required, the string
should consist entirely of the module or package name. Examples include
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'mymodule'</span></tt> and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'xml.parsers.expat'</span></tt>.</p>
<p>If specific versions are required, a sequence of qualifiers can be supplied in
parentheses. Each qualifier may consist of a comparison operator and a version
number. The accepted comparison operators are:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><pre>< > ==
<= >= !=</pre>
</div>
<p>These can be combined by using multiple qualifiers separated by commas (and
optional whitespace). In this case, all of the qualifiers must be matched; a
logical AND is used to combine the evaluations.</p>
<p>Let’s look at a bunch of examples:</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="35%" />
<col width="65%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Requires Expression</th>
<th class="head">Explanation</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">==1.0</span></tt></td>
<td>Only version <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">1.0</span></tt> is compatible</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">>1.0,</span> <span class="pre">!=1.5.1,</span> <span class="pre"><2.0</span></tt></td>
<td>Any version after <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">1.0</span></tt> and before <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">2.0</span></tt>
is compatible, except <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">1.5.1</span></tt></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Now that we can specify dependencies, we also need to be able to specify what we
provide that other distributions can require. This is done using the <em>provides</em>
keyword argument to <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">setup()</span></tt>. The value for this keyword is a list of
strings, each of which names a Python module or package, and optionally
identifies the version. If the version is not specified, it is assumed to match
that of the distribution.</p>
<p>Some examples:</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="31%" />
<col width="69%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Provides Expression</th>
<th class="head">Explanation</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">mypkg</span></tt></td>
<td>Provide <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">mypkg</span></tt>, using the distribution
version</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">mypkg</span> <span class="pre">(1.1)</span></tt></td>
<td>Provide <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">mypkg</span></tt> version 1.1, regardless of
the distribution version</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>A package can declare that it obsoletes other packages using the <em>obsoletes</em>
keyword argument. The value for this is similar to that of the <em>requires</em>
keyword: a list of strings giving module or package specifiers. Each specifier
consists of a module or package name optionally followed by one or more version
qualifiers. Version qualifiers are given in parentheses after the module or
package name.</p>
<p>The versions identified by the qualifiers are those that are obsoleted by the
distribution being described. If no qualifiers are given, all versions of the
named module or package are understood to be obsoleted.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="installing-scripts">
<span id="distutils-installing-scripts"></span><h2>2.5. Installing Scripts<a class="headerlink" href="#installing-scripts" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>So far we have been dealing with pure and non-pure Python modules, which are
usually not run by themselves but imported by scripts.</p>
<p>Scripts are files containing Python source code, intended to be started from the
command line. Scripts don’t require Distutils to do anything very complicated.
The only clever feature is that if the first line of the script starts with
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">#!</span></tt> and contains the word “python”, the Distutils will adjust the first line
to refer to the current interpreter location. By default, it is replaced with
the current interpreter location. The <em class="xref">--executable</em> (or <em class="xref">-e</em>)
option will allow the interpreter path to be explicitly overridden.</p>
<p>The <em class="xref">scripts</em> option simply is a list of files to be handled in this
way. From the PyXML setup script:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">setup</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">...</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">scripts</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'scripts/xmlproc_parse'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'scripts/xmlproc_val'</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p class="versionchanged">
<span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 2.7: </span>All the scripts will also be added to the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">MANIFEST</span></tt>
file if no template is provided. See <a class="reference external" href="sourcedist.html#manifest"><em>Specifying the files to distribute</em></a>.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="installing-package-data">
<span id="distutils-installing-package-data"></span><h2>2.6. Installing Package Data<a class="headerlink" href="#installing-package-data" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Often, additional files need to be installed into a package. These files are
often data that’s closely related to the package’s implementation, or text files
containing documentation that might be of interest to programmers using the
package. These files are called <em>package data</em>.</p>
<p>Package data can be added to packages using the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">package_data</span></tt> keyword
argument to the <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">setup()</span></tt> function. The value must be a mapping from
package name to a list of relative path names that should be copied into the
package. The paths are interpreted as relative to the directory containing the
package (information from the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">package_dir</span></tt> mapping is used if appropriate);
that is, the files are expected to be part of the package in the source
directories. They may contain glob patterns as well.</p>
<p>The path names may contain directory portions; any necessary directories will be
created in the installation.</p>
<p>For example, if a package should contain a subdirectory with several data files,
the files can be arranged like this in the source tree:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><pre>setup.py
src/
mypkg/
__init__.py
module.py
data/
tables.dat
spoons.dat
forks.dat</pre>
</div>
<p>The corresponding call to <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">setup()</span></tt> might be:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">setup</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">...</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">packages</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'mypkg'</span><span class="p">],</span>
<span class="n">package_dir</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">{</span><span class="s">'mypkg'</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s">'src/mypkg'</span><span class="p">},</span>
<span class="n">package_data</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">{</span><span class="s">'mypkg'</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'data/*.dat'</span><span class="p">]},</span>
<span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p class="versionadded">
<span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.4.</span></p>
<p class="versionchanged">
<span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 2.7: </span>All the files that match <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">package_data</span></tt> will be added to the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">MANIFEST</span></tt>
file if no template is provided. See <a class="reference external" href="sourcedist.html#manifest"><em>Specifying the files to distribute</em></a>.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="installing-additional-files">
<span id="distutils-additional-files"></span><h2>2.7. Installing Additional Files<a class="headerlink" href="#installing-additional-files" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>The <em class="xref">data_files</em> option can be used to specify additional files needed
by the module distribution: configuration files, message catalogs, data files,
anything which doesn’t fit in the previous categories.</p>
<p><em class="xref">data_files</em> specifies a sequence of (<em>directory</em>, <em>files</em>) pairs in the
following way:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">setup</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">...</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">data_files</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">[(</span><span class="s">'bitmaps'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'bm/b1.gif'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'bm/b2.gif'</span><span class="p">]),</span>
<span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'config'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'cfg/data.cfg'</span><span class="p">]),</span>
<span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'/etc/init.d'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s">'init-script'</span><span class="p">])]</span>
<span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Note that you can specify the directory names where the data files will be
installed, but you cannot rename the data files themselves.</p>
<p>Each (<em>directory</em>, <em>files</em>) pair in the sequence specifies the installation
directory and the files to install there. If <em>directory</em> is a relative path, it
is interpreted relative to the installation prefix (Python’s <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.prefix</span></tt> for
pure-Python packages, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.exec_prefix</span></tt> for packages that contain extension
modules). Each file name in <em>files</em> is interpreted relative to the
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">setup.py</span></tt> script at the top of the package source distribution. No
directory information from <em>files</em> is used to determine the final location of
the installed file; only the name of the file is used.</p>
<p>You can specify the <em class="xref">data_files</em> options as a simple sequence of files
without specifying a target directory, but this is not recommended, and the
<strong>install</strong> command will print a warning in this case. To install data
files directly in the target directory, an empty string should be given as the
directory.</p>
<p class="versionchanged">
<span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 2.7: </span>All the files that match <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">data_files</span></tt> will be added to the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">MANIFEST</span></tt>
file if no template is provided. See <a class="reference external" href="sourcedist.html#manifest"><em>Specifying the files to distribute</em></a>.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="additional-meta-data">
<span id="meta-data"></span><h2>2.8. Additional meta-data<a class="headerlink" href="#additional-meta-data" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>The setup script may include additional meta-data beyond the name and version.
This information includes:</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="30%" />
<col width="36%" />
<col width="23%" />
<col width="11%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Meta-Data</th>
<th class="head">Description</th>
<th class="head">Value</th>
<th class="head">Notes</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">name</span></tt></td>
<td>name of the package</td>
<td>short string</td>
<td>(1)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">version</span></tt></td>
<td>version of this release</td>
<td>short string</td>
<td>(1)(2)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">author</span></tt></td>
<td>package author’s name</td>
<td>short string</td>
<td>(3)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">author_email</span></tt></td>
<td>email address of the
package author</td>
<td>email address</td>
<td>(3)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">maintainer</span></tt></td>
<td>package maintainer’s name</td>
<td>short string</td>
<td>(3)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">maintainer_email</span></tt></td>
<td>email address of the
package maintainer</td>
<td>email address</td>
<td>(3)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">url</span></tt></td>
<td>home page for the package</td>
<td>URL</td>
<td>(1)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">description</span></tt></td>
<td>short, summary
description of the
package</td>
<td>short string</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">long_description</span></tt></td>
<td>longer description of the
package</td>
<td>long string</td>
<td>(5)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">download_url</span></tt></td>
<td>location where the
package may be downloaded</td>
<td>URL</td>
<td>(4)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">classifiers</span></tt></td>
<td>a list of classifiers</td>
<td>list of strings</td>
<td>(4)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">platforms</span></tt></td>
<td>a list of platforms</td>
<td>list of strings</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">license</span></tt></td>
<td>license for the package</td>
<td>short string</td>
<td>(6)</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Notes:</p>
<ol class="arabic simple">
<li>These fields are required.</li>
<li>It is recommended that versions take the form <em>major.minor[.patch[.sub]]</em>.</li>
<li>Either the author or the maintainer must be identified.</li>
<li>These fields should not be used if your package is to be compatible with Python
versions prior to 2.2.3 or 2.3. The list is available from the <a class="reference external" href="http://pypi.python.org/pypi">PyPI website</a>.</li>
<li>The <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">long_description</span></tt> field is used by PyPI when you are registering a
package, to build its home page.</li>
<li>The <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">license</span></tt> field is a text indicating the license covering the
package where the license is not a selection from the “License” Trove
classifiers. See the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Classifier</span></tt> field. Notice that
there’s a <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">licence</span></tt> distribution option which is deprecated but still
acts as an alias for <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">license</span></tt>.</li>
</ol>
<dl class="docutils">
<dt>‘short string’</dt>
<dd>A single line of text, not more than 200 characters.</dd>
<dt>‘long string’</dt>
<dd>Multiple lines of plain text in reStructuredText format (see
<a class="reference external" href="http://docutils.sf.net/">http://docutils.sf.net/</a>).</dd>
<dt>‘list of strings’</dt>
<dd>See below.</dd>
</dl>
<p>None of the string values may be Unicode.</p>
<p>Encoding the version information is an art in itself. Python packages generally
adhere to the version format <em>major.minor[.patch][sub]</em>. The major number is 0
for initial, experimental releases of software. It is incremented for releases
that represent major milestones in a package. The minor number is incremented
when important new features are added to the package. The patch number
increments when bug-fix releases are made. Additional trailing version
information is sometimes used to indicate sub-releases. These are
“a1,a2,...,aN” (for alpha releases, where functionality and API may change),
“b1,b2,...,bN” (for beta releases, which only fix bugs) and “pr1,pr2,...,prN”
(for final pre-release release testing). Some examples:</p>
<dl class="docutils">
<dt>0.1.0</dt>
<dd>the first, experimental release of a package</dd>
<dt>1.0.1a2</dt>
<dd>the second alpha release of the first patch version of 1.0</dd>
</dl>
<p><em class="xref">classifiers</em> are specified in a Python list:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">setup</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">...</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">classifiers</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">[</span>
<span class="s">'Development Status :: 4 - Beta'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="s">'Environment :: Console'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="s">'Environment :: Web Environment'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="s">'Intended Audience :: End Users/Desktop'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="s">'Intended Audience :: Developers'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="s">'Intended Audience :: System Administrators'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="s">'License :: OSI Approved :: Python Software Foundation License'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="s">'Operating System :: MacOS :: MacOS X'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="s">'Operating System :: Microsoft :: Windows'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="s">'Operating System :: POSIX'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="s">'Programming Language :: Python'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="s">'Topic :: Communications :: Email'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="s">'Topic :: Office/Business'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="s">'Topic :: Software Development :: Bug Tracking'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="p">],</span>
<span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>If you wish to include classifiers in your <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">setup.py</span></tt> file and also wish
to remain backwards-compatible with Python releases prior to 2.2.3, then you can
include the following code fragment in your <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">setup.py</span></tt> before the
<tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">setup()</span></tt> call.</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="c"># patch distutils if it can't cope with the "classifiers" or</span>
<span class="c"># "download_url" keywords</span>
<span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">sys</span> <span class="kn">import</span> <span class="n">version</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">version</span> <span class="o"><</span> <span class="s">'2.2.3'</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">distutils.dist</span> <span class="kn">import</span> <span class="n">DistributionMetadata</span>
<span class="n">DistributionMetadata</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">classifiers</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="bp">None</span>
<span class="n">DistributionMetadata</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">download_url</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="bp">None</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="debugging-the-setup-script">
<h2>2.9. Debugging the setup script<a class="headerlink" href="#debugging-the-setup-script" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Sometimes things go wrong, and the setup script doesn’t do what the developer
wants.</p>
<p>Distutils catches any exceptions when running the setup script, and print a
simple error message before the script is terminated. The motivation for this
behaviour is to not confuse administrators who don’t know much about Python and
are trying to install a package. If they get a big long traceback from deep
inside the guts of Distutils, they may think the package or the Python
installation is broken because they don’t read all the way down to the bottom
and see that it’s a permission problem.</p>
<p>On the other hand, this doesn’t help the developer to find the cause of the
failure. For this purpose, the DISTUTILS_DEBUG environment variable can be set
to anything except an empty string, and distutils will now print detailed
information what it is doing, and prints the full traceback in case an exception
occurs.</p>
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<h3><a href="../contents.html">Table Of Contents</a></h3>
<ul>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#">2. Writing the Setup Script</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#listing-whole-packages">2.1. Listing whole packages</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#listing-individual-modules">2.2. Listing individual modules</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#describing-extension-modules">2.3. Describing extension modules</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#extension-names-and-packages">2.3.1. Extension names and packages</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#extension-source-files">2.3.2. Extension source files</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#preprocessor-options">2.3.3. Preprocessor options</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#library-options">2.3.4. Library options</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#other-options">2.3.5. Other options</a></li>
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<li><a class="reference external" href="#relationships-between-distributions-and-packages">2.4. Relationships between Distributions and Packages</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#installing-scripts">2.5. Installing Scripts</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#installing-package-data">2.6. Installing Package Data</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#installing-additional-files">2.7. Installing Additional Files</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#additional-meta-data">2.8. Additional meta-data</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#debugging-the-setup-script">2.9. Debugging the setup script</a></li>
</ul>
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