Cleaning build directory in setup.py
How could I make my setup.py pre-delete and post-delete the build directory?
Does this answer it? IIRC, you'll need to use the --all flag to get rid of stuff outside of build/lib:
python setup.py clean --all
For pre-deletion, just delete it with distutils.dir_util.remove_tree before calling setup.
For post-delete, I assume you only want to post-delete after selected commands. Subclass the respective command, override its run method (to invoke remove_tree after calling the base run), and pass the new command into the cmdclass dictionary of setup.