Packaging without setup.py

Question

Did anybody try to create tools that create Python source distributions (sdist) without setup.py? Does Python allow that? Is that at all possible? Or setup.py is an obligatory part of any isntallable Python archive hosted on PyPI? If yes, then where is a PEP for that format?

Answer 1

A Python package is just a bunch of Python files in a folder, possibly with an __init__.py file as well. It might also have subpackages, which are just packages within packages.

Generally, setup.py is not included in any such package.