distutils: How to pass a user defined parameter to setup.py?

Question

Please prompt me how to pass a user-defined parameter both from the command line and setup.cfg configuration file to distutils\' setup.py script. I want to write a setup.py

Answer 1

Here is a very simple solution, all you have to do is filter out sys.argv and handle it yourself before you call to distutils setup(..). Something like this:

if "--foo" in sys.argv:
    do_foo_stuff()
    sys.argv.remove("--foo")
...
setup(..)

The documentation on how to do this with distutils is terrible, eventually I came across this one: the hitchhikers guide to packaging, which uses sdist and its user_options. I find the extending distutils reference not particularly helpful.

Although this looks like the "proper" way of doing it with distutils (at least the only one that I could find that is vaguely documented). I could not find anything on --with and --without switches mentioned in the other answer.

The problem with this distutils solution is that it is just way too involved for what I am looking for (which may also be the case for you). Adding dozens of lines and subclassing sdist is just wrong for me.