Why does "python setup.py sdist" create unwanted "PROJECT-egg.info" in project root directory?
When I run
python setup.py sdist
it creates an sdist in my ./dist directory. This includes a "PROJECT-egg.info" file in the zip inside my "dist" folder, which I don't use, but it doesn't hurt me, so I just ignore it.
My question is why does it also create a "PROJECT-egg.info" folder in my project root directory? Can I make it stop creating this? If not, can I just delete it immediately after creating the sdist?
I'm using the 'setup' function imported from setuptools. WindowsXP, Python2.7, Setuptools 0.6c11, Distribute 0.6.14.
My setup config looks like:
{'author': 'Jonathan Hartley',
'author_email': '[email protected]',
'classifiers': ['Development Status :: 1 - Planning',
'Intended Audience :: Developers',
'License :: OSI Approved :: BSD License',
'Operating System :: Microsoft :: Windows',
'Programming Language :: Python :: 2.7'],
'console': [{'script': 'demo.py'}],
'data_files': [('Microsoft.VC90.CRT',
['..\\lib\\Microsoft.VC90.CRT\\Microsoft.VC90.CRT.manifest',
'..\\lib\\Microsoft.VC90.CRT\\msvcr90.dll'])],
'description': 'Utilities for games and OpenGL graphics, built around Pyglet.\n',
'keywords': '',
'license': 'BSD',
'long_description': "blah blah blah",
'name': 'pygpen',
'options': {'py2exe': {'ascii': True,
'bundle_files': 1,
'dist_dir': 'dist/pygpen-0.1-windows',
'dll_excludes': [],
'excludes': ['_imaging_gif',
'_scproxy',
'clr',
'dummy.Process',
'email',
'email.base64mime',
'email.utils',
'email.Utils',
'ICCProfile',
'Image',
'IronPythonConsole',
'modes.editingmodes',
'startup',
'System',
'System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard',
'_hashlib',
'_imaging',
'_multiprocessing',
'_ssl',
'_socket',
'bz2',
'pyexpat',
'pyreadline',
'select',
'win32api',
'win32pipe',
'calendar',
'cookielib',
'difflib',
'doctest',
'locale',
'optparse',
'pdb',
'pickle',
'pyglet.window.xlib',
'pyglet.window.carbon',
'pyglet.window.carbon.constants',
'pyglet.window.carbon.types',
'subprocess',
'tarfile',
'threading',
'unittest',
'urllib',
'urllib2',
'win32con',
'zipfile'],
'optimize': 2}},
'packages': ['pygpen'],
'scripts': ['demo.py'],
'url': 'http://code.google.com/p/edpath/',
'version': '0.1',
'zipfile': None}
Solution 1:
This directory is created intentionally as part of the build process for a source distribution. A little gander at the developer guide for setuptools gives you a hint as to why:
But, be sure to ignore any part of the distutils documentation that deals with MANIFEST or how it's generated from MANIFEST.in; setuptools shields you from these issues and doesn't work the same way in any case. Unlike the distutils, setuptools regenerates the source distribution manifest file every time you build a source distribution, and it builds it inside the project's .egg-info directory, out of the way of your main project directory. You therefore need not worry about whether it is up-to-date or not.
You may safely delete the directory after your build has completed.
Bonus edit:
I customize the clean command within my setup.py on many of my Python projects to delete *.egg-info, dist, build, and *.pyc and other files. Here's an example of how it's done in setup.py:
import os
from setuptools import setup, Command
class CleanCommand(Command):
"""Custom clean command to tidy up the project root."""
user_options = []
def initialize_options(self):
pass
def finalize_options(self):
pass
def run(self):
os.system('rm -vrf ./build ./dist ./*.pyc ./*.tgz ./*.egg-info')
# Further down when you call setup()
setup(
# ... Other setup options
cmdclass={
'clean': CleanCommand,
}
)
To illustrate, after running python setup.py build on a dummy project called "poop" (Yes, I'm very mature), this happens:
$ python setup.py build
running build
running build_py
creating build
creating build/lib
creating build/lib/poop
copying poop/__init__.py -> build/lib/poop
And now if we run python setup.py clean:
$ python setup.py clean
running clean
removed `./build/lib/poop/__init__.py'
removed directory: `./build/lib/poop'
removed directory: `./build/lib'
removed directory: `./build'
Tada!
Solution 2:
The -egg.info folder isn't always a temporary artifact you can delete.
For example, if you use pip install -e YOURPACKAGE for an "editable" install (works via symlink like python setup.py develop so you don't have to re-install a package every time you edit it locally), the -egg.info folder is required at runtime when your package is imported in another source. If it doesn't exist, you will get a DistributionNotFound error.
Solution 3:
Note that you can have the PROJECT.egg-info artifacts disappear completely from your sdist.
The command setup.py egg_info will use the source root as the egg base by default, resulting in the PROJECT.egg-info directory being packaged into the sdist.
You can configure the egg base by passing the option --egg-base.
This will create the PROJECT.egg-info directory somewhere else, leaving it out of your source distribution completely. You might also use a setup.cfg to set that property.
The following command to create a sdist without a PROJECT.egg-info works for me:
python setup.py egg_info --egg-base /tmp sdist
Or in a setup.cfg:
[egg_info]
egg_base = /tmp
Solution 4:
Pythons packaging and build system is broken imho. So there are many hacks and workarounds for things that one would belive work out of the box.
However, the "cleanest" hack I found for deleting the *.egg-info is using the normal clean --all switch along with the egg_info to place the *.egg-info file in a subfolder that will be cleaned by the clean command. Here an example:
In your setup.cfg use something like this:
[egg_info]
egg_base = ./build/lib
where ./build/lib is a folder that clean --all will delete. Then when building your project with setuptools use the clean command with the --all flag, e.g.
python setup.py bdist_wheel clean --all
if you want to build a source bundle as well just make sure to build bdist_wheel before sdist so the build/lib folder exists, e.g.:
python setup.py bdist_wheel sdist clean --all