Best way to package a Python library that includes a C shared library?

Question

I have written a library whose main functionality is implemented in C (speed is critical), with a thin Python layer around it to deal with the ctypes nastiness.

Answer 1

I had a similar need and found this answer helpful: Python setup.py call makefile don't include binaries.

I have an ANSI C library in the src directory of my distribution. In the src directory is a Makefile that builds a file called liblsd.so in my package directory (lsd). I call this in setup.py and then tell setup to include the library file using the package_data argument.

import os.path
import subprocess

from setuptools import setup

with open(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'README.rst')) as f:
    readme = f.read()

subprocess.call(['make', '-C', 'src'])

setup(name='LSD',
  version='0.0.1',
  description='Python bindings for the LSD line segment detector.',
  long_description=readme,
  author='Geoff Hing',
  author_email='geoffhing@gmail.com',
  url='https://github.com/ghing/python-lsd',
  packages=['lsd'],
  package_data={'lsd': ['liblsd.so']},
  include_package_data=True,
  classifiers=[
      'Development Status :: 1 - Planning',
      'Intended Audience :: Developers',
      'License :: OSI Approved :: MIT License',
      'Operating System :: OS Independent',
      'Programming Language :: Python',
      'Programming Language :: C',
      ],
 )