11

I'm developing an Python egg that has several .txt dependencies (they're templates used to generate files by the egg itself), and I'm struggling to get those dependencies copied to site-packages during setup.py install. According to the distribute documentation...

Filesystem of my package:

setup.py
package
|--- __init__.py
|--- main.py
|--- binary (calls main.py with pkg_resources.load_entry_point)
|--- templates
     |--file1.txt
     |--file2.txt

In setup.py:

setup(
    [...]
    eager_resources = ['templates/file1.txt', 'templates/file2.txt']
)

Within my package:

from pkg_resources import resource_string
tpl = resource_string(__name__, 'templates/file1.txt')

...this combination of configuration and filesystem should result in file1.txt and file2.txt being available through pkg_resources.resource_string. Unfortunately, they're not being copied to site-packages during setup.py install. What am I missing?

Thanks!

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
5

The information can be found in the setuptools documentation for including package data: https://setuptools.readthedocs.io/en/latest/setuptools.html#including-data-files

Basically, you just need to set include_package_data=True in your setup.py file. If you are using subversion or CVS, all versioned files will be included. If not, you can specify which files to include with a MANIFEST.in file.

I believe distribute supports this as well.

You can then access the files as you would without them being packaged. i.e. in main.py you could have:

import os.path
f = open(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__),'templates','file1.txt'))
print f.read()
f.close()

and this would work in the packaged version as well. One caveat is that you will have to also set zip_safe = False in setup.py so that all the files are unzipped during installation.

Improve this answer
5
  • Excellent, thank you for the help. Would you mind clarifying the difference between "data files" and "resources", as defined by the setuptools documentation you linked to? I was following the instructions for resources, but they appear to be qualitatively different. Thanks!
    – chuckharmston
    Commented Nov 14, 2009 at 1:34
  • Well, your question was the first time I've ever come across "resources" so I too am curious what they are for. But data files are definitely the way to go for stuff like templates.
    – pcardune
    Commented Nov 14, 2009 at 5:18
  • 9
    Note that you need not use zip_safe=False. Instead, use pkg_resources.resource_stream('packagename', 'templates/file1.txt').read() and setuptools will get the stream for you from the filesystem or from the zipped egg.
    – Jason R. Coombs
    Commented Apr 12, 2010 at 14:26
  • 5
    The documentation specifically recommends against using __file__ type access for packaged data (peak.telecommunity.com/DevCenter/…). Use the Resource Management API like the OP was already using, and like @JasonR.Coombs suggested.
    – brianmearns
    Commented Jan 23, 2013 at 20:52
  • 1
    This solution only works when using a manifest file or a version control system. Is there a way to do this using only the package_data (or eager_resources) arguments of setup?
    – Martin
    Commented Jul 6, 2018 at 13:00