Python Packaging: Data files are put properly in tar.gz file but are not installed to virtual environment

Question

I can't properly install the project package_fiddler to my virtual environment.

I have figured out that MANIFEST.in is responsible for putting the non-.py files in Package_fiddler-0.0.0.tar.gz that is generated when executing python setup.py sdist.

Then I did:

(virt_envir)$ pip install dist/Package_fiddler-0.0.0.tar.gz

But this did not install the data files nor the package to /home/username/.virtualenvs/virt_envir/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages.

I have tried many configurations of the setup arguments package_data, include_package_data and data_files but I seem to have used the wrong configuration each time.

Which configuration of package_data and/or include_package_data and/or data_files will properly install package_fiddler to my virtual environment?

Project tree

. ├── MANIFEST.in ├── package_fiddler │   ├── data │   │   ├── example.html │   │   └── stylesheets │   │       └── example.css │   └── __init__.py ├── README.rst └── setup.py 

setup.py

from setuptools import setup   setup(     name='Package_fiddler',     entry_points={     'console_scripts': ['package_fiddler = package_fiddler:main', ],},     long_description=open('README.rst').read(),     packages=['package_fiddler',]) 

MANIFEST.in

include README.rst recursive-include package_fiddler/data * 

Which configurations of setup.py(with code base above) have I tried?

Configuration1

Adding:

package_data={"": ['package_fiddler/data/*',]} 

Configuration2

Adding:

package_data={"": ['*.html', '*.css', '*.rst']} 

Configuration3

Adding:

include_package_data=True 

Configuration4

Adding:

package_data={"": ['package_fiddler/data',]} 

Removing:

packages=['package_fiddler',] 

Configuration5 (Chris's suggestion)

Adding:

package_data={"data": ['package_fiddler/data',]} 

Removing:

packages=['package_fiddler',] 

Configuration 6

Adding:

package_data={"": ['package_fiddler/data/*',]} 

Removing:

packages=['package_fiddler',] 

These configurations all result in no files at all being installed on /home/username/.virtualenvs/virt_envir/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages.

EDIT

Note to Toshio Kuratomi: In my original post I used the simplest tree structure where this problem occurs for clarity but in reality my tree looks more like the tree below. For that tree, strangely if I only put an __init__.py in stylesheets somehow all the data files in the texts folder are also installed correctly!!! This baffles me.

Tree 2 (This installs all data files properly somehow!!)

. ├── MANIFEST.in ├── package_fiddler │   │── stylesheets |   |     ├── __init__.py |   |     ├── example.css   |   |     └── other |   |          └── example2.css |   |__ texts |   |     ├── example.txt   |   |     └── other |   |          └── example2.txt │   └── __init__.py ├── README.rst └── setup.py 

Answer 1

Found a solution that worked for me here.

Using setuptools==2.0.2 I did:

setuptools.setup(     ...     packages=setuptools.find_packages(),     include_package_data=True,  # use MANIFEST.in during install     ... )