If you're just distributing a couple of modules, especially if they
don't live in a particular package, you can specify them individually
using the py_modules option in the setup script.
In the simplest case, you'll have two files to worry about: a setup
script and the single module you're distributing, foo.py in this
example:
<root>/
setup.py
foo.py
(In all diagrams in this section, <root> will refer to the
distribution root directory.) A minimal setup script to describe this
situation would be:
from distutils.core import setup
setup(name = "foo", version = "1.0",
py_modules = ["foo"])
Note that the name of the distribution is specified independently with
the name option, and there's no rule that says it has to be the
same as the name of the sole module in the distribution (although that's
probably a good convention to follow). However, the distribution name
is used to generate filenames, so you should stick to letters, digits,
underscores, and hyphens.
Since py_modules is a list, you can of course specify multiple
modules, eg. if you're distributing modules foo and
bar, your setup might look like this:
<root>/
setup.py
foo.py
bar.py
and the setup script might be
from distutils.core import setup
setup(name = "foobar", version = "1.0",
py_modules = ["foo", "bar"])
You can put module source files into another directory, but if you have
enough modules to do that, it's probably easier to specify modules by
package rather than listing them individually.
8.2 Pure Python distribution (by package)
If you have more than a couple of modules to distribute, especially if
they are in multiple packages, it's probably easier to specify whole
packages rather than individual modules. This works even if your
modules are not in a package; you can just tell the Distutils to process
modules from the root package, and that works the same as any other
package (except that you don't have to have an __init__.py
file).
The setup script from the last example could also be written as
from distutils.core import setup
setup(name = "foobar", version = "1.0",
packages = [""])
(The empty string stands for the root package.)
If those two files are moved into a subdirectory, but remain in the root
package, e.g.:
<root>/
setup.py
src/ foo.py
bar.py
then you would still specify the root package, but you have to tell the
Distutils where source files in the root package live:
from distutils.core import setup
setup(name = "foobar", version = "1.0",
package_dir = {"": "src"},
packages = [""])
More typically, though, you will want to distribute multiple modules in
the same package (or in sub-packages). For example, if the foo
and bar modules belong in package foobar, one way to
layout your source tree is
This is in fact the default layout expected by the Distutils, and the
one that requires the least work to describe in your setup script:
from distutils.core import setup
setup(name = "foobar", version = "1.0",
packages = ["foobar"])
If you want to put modules in directories not named for their package,
then you need to use the package_dir option again. For
example, if the src directory holds modules in the
foobar package:
<root>/
setup.py
src/
__init__.py
foo.py
bar.py
an appropriate setup script would be
from distutils.core import setup
setup(name = "foobar", version = "1.0",
package_dir = {"foobar" : "src"},
packages = ["foobar"])
Or, you might put modules from your main package right in the
distribution root:
<root>/
setup.py
__init__.py
foo.py
bar.py
in which case your setup script would be
from distutils.core import setup
setup(name = "foobar", version = "1.0",
package_dir = {"foobar" : ""},
packages = ["foobar"])
(The empty string also stands for the current directory.)
If you have sub-packages, they must be explicitly listed in
packages, but any entries in package_dir
automatically extend to sub-packages. (In other words, the Distutils
does not scan your source tree, trying to figure out which
directories correspond to Python packages by looking for
__init__.py files.) Thus, if the default layout grows a
sub-package:
from distutils.core import setup
setup(name = "foobar", version = "1.0",
packages = ["foobar", "foobar.subfoo"])
(Again, the empty string in package_dir stands for the current
directory.)
8.3 Single extension module
Extension modules are specified using the ext_modules option.
package_dir has no effect on where extension source files are
found; it only affects the source for pure Python modules. The simplest
case, a single extension module in a single C source file, is:
<root>/
setup.py
foo.c
If the foo extension belongs in the root package, the setup
script for this could be
from distutils.core import setup
setup(name = "foobar", version = "1.0",
ext_modules = [Extension("foo", ["foo.c"])])
If the extension actually belongs in a package, say foopkg,
then
With exactly the same source tree layout, this extension can be put in
the foopkg package simply by changing the name of the
extension:
from distutils.core import setup
setup(name = "foobar", version = "1.0",
ext_modules = [Extension("foopkg.foo", ["foo.c"])])
