How to use setuptools to install in a custom directory?

Question

I have a Python package that I need to install in the /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages or any other specific directory for that matter.

Whenever I run the setup.py script it gives the following output:

root@abc44:~/som_dir/plugins/abc$python setup.py install
running install
running bdist_egg
running egg_info
writing abcNewPlugin.egg-info/PKG-INFO
writing top-level names to abcNewPlugin.egg-info/top_level.txt
writing dependency_links to abcNewPlugin.egg-info/dependency_links.txt
writing entry points to abcNewPlugin.egg-info/entry_points.txt
reading manifest file 'abcNewPlugin.egg-info/SOURCES.txt'
writing manifest file 'abcNewPlugin.egg-info/SOURCES.txt'
installing library code to build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg
running install_lib
warning: install_lib: 'build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7' does not exist -- no Python modules to install

creating build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg
creating build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO
installing scripts to build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO/scripts
running install_scripts
running build_scripts
creating build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO/scripts
copying build/scripts-2.7/abc_plugin.py -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO/scripts
changing mode of build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO/scripts/abc_plugin.py to 775
copying abcNewPlugin.egg-info/PKG-INFO -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO
copying abcNewPlugin.egg-info/SOURCES.txt -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO
copying abcNewPlugin.egg-info/dependency_links.txt -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO
copying abcNewPlugin.egg-info/entry_points.txt -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO
copying abcNewPlugin.egg-info/top_level.txt -> build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/EGG-INFO
zip_safe flag not set; analyzing archive contents...
creating 'dist/abcNewPlugin-0.0-py2.7.egg' and adding 'build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg' to it
removing 'build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg' (and everything under it)
Processing abcNewPlugin-0.0-py2.7.egg
Removing /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/abcNewPlugin-0.0-py2.7.egg
Copying abcNewPlugin-0.0-py2.7.egg to /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages
abcNewPlugin 0.0 is already the active version in easy-install.pth
Installing abc_plugin.py script to /usr/local/bin

Installed /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/abcNewPlugin-0.0-py2.7.egg
Processing dependencies for abcNewPlugin==0.0
Finished processing dependencies for abcNewPlugin==0.0

Is there any way to specify the install directory of the package in setuptools? I tried --install-dir option but it gives an error:

$sudo python setup.py install --install-dir=/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages
usage: setup.py [global_opts] cmd1 [cmd1_opts] [cmd2 [cmd2_opts] ...]
   or: setup.py --help [cmd1 cmd2 ...]
   or: setup.py --help-commands
   or: setup.py cmd --help

error: option --install-dir not recognized

I could not use --prefix option also.

Answer 1

Since the python setup.py install command is just a shortcut to easy_install, try running it directly, it has the --install-dir option:

easy_install . --install-dir /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages

You can get other available options with python setup.py install -h, in case you need some more, but these are rather cryptic.

Answer 2

--install-lib sets the installation directory for a module

python setup.py install --install-lib /src/lib/

Answer 3

For some reason --prefix did not work for me. Currently using a Debian/buster system:

% python --version
Python 3.9.2

Doing a quick check:

% apt-get source python3-openslide
% cd openslide-python-1.1.2
% python setup.py install --prefix /tmp/foo
% find /tmp/foo
/tmp/foo
/tmp/foo/lib
/tmp/foo/lib/python3.9
/tmp/foo/lib/python3.9/site-packages
/tmp/foo/lib/python3.9/site-packages/openslide_python-1.1.2-py3.9-linux-x86_64.egg

instead in my case I had to :

% python setup.py install --root /tmp/bar
% find /tmp/bar
/tmp/bar
/tmp/bar/usr
/tmp/bar/usr/local
/tmp/bar/usr/local/lib
/tmp/bar/usr/local/lib/python3.9
/tmp/bar/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages
/tmp/bar/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/openslide
/tmp/bar/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/openslide/__init__.py
/tmp/bar/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/openslide/deepzoom.py
/tmp/bar/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/openslide/lowlevel.py
/tmp/bar/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/openslide/_version.py
/tmp/bar/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/openslide/__pycache__
/tmp/bar/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/openslide/__pycache__/deepzoom.cpython-39.pyc
/tmp/bar/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/openslide/__pycache__/__init__.cpython-39.pyc
/tmp/bar/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/openslide/__pycache__/_version.cpython-39.pyc
/tmp/bar/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/openslide/__pycache__/lowlevel.cpython-39.pyc
/tmp/bar/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/openslide/_convert.cpython-39-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
/tmp/bar/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/openslide_python-1.1.2.egg-info
/tmp/bar/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/openslide_python-1.1.2.egg-info/PKG-INFO
/tmp/bar/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/openslide_python-1.1.2.egg-info/top_level.txt
/tmp/bar/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/openslide_python-1.1.2.egg-info/SOURCES.txt
/tmp/bar/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/openslide_python-1.1.2.egg-info/dependency_links.txt
/tmp/bar/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/openslide_python-1.1.2.egg-info/requires.txt
/tmp/bar/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/openslide_python-1.1.2.egg-info/zip-safe