Why does "pip install" not include my package_data files?

Question

I can't figure out why when I run pip install ../path_to_my_proj/ (from a virtualenv) none of the data files are copied across to the sitepackage/myproj/ folder. The python packages are copied across correctly.

python version 3.4.4

My project directory is like this:

├── myproj
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── module1.py
│   └── module2.py
├── data_files
|    ├── subfolder1
│    |   ├── datafile.dll
│    |   └── datafile2.dll
|    └── subfolder2
│        ├── datafile3.dll
│        └── datafile4.dll
|
├── MANIFEST.in
└── setup.py

And my MANIFEST.in looks like

recursive-include data_files *
include README.md

my setup looks like:

setup(
    name='myproj',
    version='0.1.1',
    install_requires=['requirement'],
    packages=['myproj'],
    include_package_data=True,
)  

Answer 1

I encountered the same problem and asked about it on https://gitter.im/pypa/setuptools. The result? You just can't do that. data_files must live under myproj.

You can fake it by putting an empty __init__.py in data_files, but then it will get put into PYTHONHOME\Lib\site-packages along side myproj at same level, polluting the name space.