Is it possible to include subdirectories using dist utils (setup.py) as part of package data?

Question

Basically my python package is setup like:

module
\\_examples
  \\_folder1
     \\_file1.py
     \\_file2.py
  \\_folder2
    \\_file1.py
    \\_file2.py
         


        

Answer 1

Yes, you can include all the subdirectories.

You just need to pass the below args to setup() function:

packages=find_packages()

include_package_data=True

Along with this you need to have a MANIFEST.in file, with contents as

recursive-include examples *

This ensures all the files are recursively included.

If you want to exclude certain extensions specifically, you can do so by specifying exclude array in the find_packages() argument.

Ex: To exclude .txt files

packages=find_packages(exclude=['.txt'])

You can read more about include_package_data here.

And also here is another link which tells you when you should not use include_package_data