Python distutils error: "[directory]... doesn't exist or not a regular file"

Question

Let's take the following project layout:

$ ls -R . .: package  setup.py  ./package: __init__.py  dir  file.dat  module.py  ./package/dir: tool1.dat  tool2.dat 

And the following content for setup.py:

$ cat setup.py  from distutils.core import setup   setup(name='pyproj',       version='0.1',        packages=[           'package',       ],       package_data={           'package': [               '*',               'dir/*',           ],       },      ) 

As you can see, I want to include all non-Python files in package/ and package/dir/ directories. However, running setup.py install would raise the following error:

$ python setup.py install running install running build running build_py creating build creating build/lib creating build/lib/package copying package/module.py -> build/lib/package copying package/__init__.py -> build/lib/package error: can't copy 'package/dir': doesn't exist or not a regular file 

What gives?

Answer 1

In your package_data, your '*' glob will match package/dir itself, and try to copy that dir as a file, resulting in a failure. Find a glob that won't match the directory package/dir, rewriting your setup.py along these lines:

from distutils.core import setup  setup(name='pyproj',       version='0.1',        packages=[           'package',       ],       package_data={           'package': [               '*.dat',               'dir/*'           ],       },      ) 

Given your example, that's just changing '*' to '*.dat', although you'd probably need to refine your glob more than that, just ensure it won't match 'dir'

Answer 2

You could use Distribute instead of distutils. It works basically the same (for the most part, you will not have to change your setup.py) and it gives you the exclude_package_data option:

from distribute_setup import use_setuptools use_setuptools()  from setuptools import setup  setup(name='pyproj',       version='0.1',        packages=[           'package',       ],       package_data={           'package': [               '*.dat',               'dir/*'           ],       },       exclude_package_data={           'package': [               'dir'           ],       },      )