Python cx_freeze & setuptools

Question

I want to use cx_freeze to freeze a python app but I also want to keep the posibillity to use pip to install the package from source. When I try to install the package in developement mode (pip install -e .), I get the error as below. It seems that cx_freeze uses distutils and not setuptools in the background. Is it possible to force cx_freeze to use also setuptools?

D:\Python\FPF4Creator>pip install -e .
You are using pip version 7.0.3, however version 7.1.2 is available.
You should consider upgrading via the 'python -m pip install --upgrade pip' command.
Obtaining file:///D:/Python/FPF4Creator
Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): jinja2 in c:\winpython\python-2.7.6\lib\site-packages (from fpf4creator==0.0.2)
Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): six in c:\winpython\python-2.7.6\lib\site-packages (from fpf4creator==0.0.2)
Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): markupsafe in c:\winpython\python-2.7.6\lib\site-packages (from jinja2->fpf4creator==0.0.2)
Installing collected packages: fpf4creator
  Running setup.py develop for fpf4creator
    Complete output from command C:\WinPython\python-2.7.6\python.exe -c "import setuptools, tokenize; __file__='D:\\Python\\FPF4Creator\\setup.py'; e
    xec(compile(getattr(tokenize, 'open', open)(__file__).read().replace('\r\n', '\n'), __file__, 'exec'))" develop --no-deps:
  running develop
    Checking .pth file support in C:\Program Files (x86)\fpf4creator\Lib\site-packages\
      error: can't create or remove files in install directory

      The following error occurred while trying to add or remove files in the
      installation directory:

      [Error 5] Zugriff verweigert: 'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\fpf4creator'

      The installation directory you specified (via --install-dir, --prefix, or
      the distutils default setting) was:

      C:\Program Files (x86)\fpf4creator\Lib\site-packages\

      This directory does not currently exist.  Please create it and try again, or
      choose a different installation directory (using the -d or --install-dir
      option).


----------------------------------------
Command "C:\WinPython\python-2.7.6\python.exe -c "import setuptools, tokenize; __file__='D:\\Python\\FPF4Creator\\setup.py'; exec(compile(getattr(tokenize, 'open', open)(__file__).read().replace('\r\n', '\n'), __file__, 'exec'))" develop --no-deps" failed with error code 1 in D:\Python\FPF4Creator

The setup.py looks like this:

import os
from setuptools import find_packages
from cx_Freeze import setup, Executable

from fpf4creator import __version__


options = {
    'build_exe': {
        'include_files': 'fpf4creator/data',
    }
}

executables = [
    Executable('fpf4creator/gui.py', targetName='FPF4Creator.exe',
               icon='fpf4creator/data/gui/icon.ico', base="Win32GUI")
]


fpf4_data = []
for root, dirnames, filenames in os.walk('fpf4creator/data'):
    for fname in filenames:
        fpf4_data.append(os.path.join(root, fname).replace('fpf4creator/', ''))


setup(
    name='fpf4creator',
    version=__version__,
    author='Author',
    author_email='[email protected]',
    packages=find_packages(),
    package_data={
        'fpf4creator': fpf4_data
    },
    install_requires=['jinja2', 'six'],
    entry_points={
        'gui_scripts': [
            'fpf4Creator = fpf4creator.gui:main',
        ],
    },
    options=options,
    executables=executables
)

Answer 1

(Answer posted to re-iterate the answer given by @ThomasK as a comment several years ago since it helped me now)

You should create an additional setup file for cx-Freeze. The name of that file can be chosen freely but should not be setup.py.

Unfortunately, you may need to specify most of the setup arguments a second time. You could also tinker with a solution that retrieves the setup arguments from setup.py by making use of the fact that sys.path contains the main script's directory.

================== setup.py ==================

from setuptools import setup, find_packages
setup_arguments = { 'name': 'myapp', 'version': '0.0.0' }
if __name__ == '__main__' :
    setup( **setup_arguments )

================ setup_cx.py =================

from setup import setup_arguments
from cx_Freeze import setup
setup( **setup_arguments )