Why does "python setup.py sdist" create unwanted "PROJECT-egg.info" in project root directory?

Question

When I run

  python setup.py sdist 

it creates an sdist in my ./dist directory. This includes a "PROJECT-egg.info" file in the zip inside my "dist" folder, which I don't use, but it doesn't hurt me, so I just ignore it.

My question is why does it also create a "PROJECT-egg.info" folder in my project root directory? Can I make it stop creating this? If not, can I just delete it immediately after creating the sdist?

I'm using the 'setup' function imported from setuptools. WindowsXP, Python2.7, Setuptools 0.6c11, Distribute 0.6.14.

My setup config looks like:

{'author': 'Jonathan Hartley',  'author_email': '[email protected]',  'classifiers': ['Development Status :: 1 - Planning',                  'Intended Audience :: Developers',                  'License :: OSI Approved :: BSD License',                  'Operating System :: Microsoft :: Windows',                  'Programming Language :: Python :: 2.7'],  'console': [{'script': 'demo.py'}],  'data_files': [('Microsoft.VC90.CRT',                  ['..\\lib\\Microsoft.VC90.CRT\\Microsoft.VC90.CRT.manifest',                   '..\\lib\\Microsoft.VC90.CRT\\msvcr90.dll'])],  'description': 'Utilities for games and OpenGL graphics, built around Pyglet.\n',  'keywords': '',  'license': 'BSD',  'long_description': "blah blah blah",  'name': 'pygpen',  'options': {'py2exe': {'ascii': True,                         'bundle_files': 1,                         'dist_dir': 'dist/pygpen-0.1-windows',                         'dll_excludes': [],                         'excludes': ['_imaging_gif',                                      '_scproxy',                                      'clr',                                      'dummy.Process',                                      'email',                                      'email.base64mime',                                      'email.utils',                                      'email.Utils',                                      'ICCProfile',                                      'Image',                                      'IronPythonConsole',                                      'modes.editingmodes',                                      'startup',                                      'System',                                      'System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard',                                      '_hashlib',                                      '_imaging',                                      '_multiprocessing',                                      '_ssl',                                      '_socket',                                      'bz2',                                      'pyexpat',                                      'pyreadline',                                      'select',                                      'win32api',                                      'win32pipe',                                      'calendar',                                      'cookielib',                                      'difflib',                                      'doctest',                                      'locale',                                      'optparse',                                      'pdb',                                      'pickle',                                      'pyglet.window.xlib',                                      'pyglet.window.carbon',                                      'pyglet.window.carbon.constants',                                      'pyglet.window.carbon.types',                                      'subprocess',                                      'tarfile',                                      'threading',                                      'unittest',                                      'urllib',                                      'urllib2',                                      'win32con',                                      'zipfile'],                         'optimize': 2}},  'packages': ['pygpen'],  'scripts': ['demo.py'],  'url': 'http://code.google.com/p/edpath/',  'version': '0.1',  'zipfile': None} 

Answer 1

This directory is created intentionally as part of the build process for a source distribution. A little gander at the developer guide for setuptools gives you a hint as to why:

But, be sure to ignore any part of the distutils documentation that deals with MANIFEST or how it's generated from MANIFEST.in; setuptools shields you from these issues and doesn't work the same way in any case. Unlike the distutils, setuptools regenerates the source distribution manifest file every time you build a source distribution, and it builds it inside the project's .egg-info directory, out of the way of your main project directory. You therefore need not worry about whether it is up-to-date or not.

You may safely delete the directory after your build has completed.

Bonus edit:

I customize the clean command within my setup.py on many of my Python projects to delete *.egg-info, dist, build, and *.pyc and other files. Here's an example of how it's done in setup.py:

import os from setuptools import setup, Command  class CleanCommand(Command):     """Custom clean command to tidy up the project root."""     user_options = []     def initialize_options(self):         pass     def finalize_options(self):         pass     def run(self):         os.system('rm -vrf ./build ./dist ./*.pyc ./*.tgz ./*.egg-info')  # Further down when you call setup() setup(     # ... Other setup options     cmdclass={         'clean': CleanCommand,     } ) 

To illustrate, after running python setup.py build on a dummy project called "poop" (Yes, I'm very mature), this happens:

$ python setup.py build running build running build_py creating build creating build/lib creating build/lib/poop copying poop/__init__.py -> build/lib/poop 

And now if we run python setup.py clean:

$ python setup.py clean running clean removed `./build/lib/poop/__init__.py' removed directory: `./build/lib/poop' removed directory: `./build/lib' removed directory: `./build' 

Tada!