File.open(readme) in setup.py isn't found

Question

The setup.py file in a Python package I've sent to pip:

#!/usr/bin/env python

from distutils.core import setup

setup(
    #......
    long_description=open('README.md').read(),
    #....
)

The file README.md exists. When put a breakpoint in setup.py and execute it locally, it reads the file well. However, when I install it from pip (pip install my_lib), it throws an exception during the installation that it's not found:

File "/private/var/folders/ty/0nvksfhn29z_cjb6md2t3x8c0000gn/T/pip_build_alex/my_app123/setup.py", line 14, in <module>
        long_description=open('README.md').read(),
    IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'README.md'
    Complete output from command python setup.py egg_info:

UPDATE:

I just downloaded my library from pip, unzipped and discovered that the file README, LICENCE, MANIFEST aren't in it. And they're in gitignore either because they exist at github.

Answer 1

I needed to create MANIFEST.in with the following content:

include README.md
include LICENSE.txt