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
<         


        

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'