Distribute a Python package with a compiled dynamic shared library

Question

How do I package a Python module together with a precompiled .so library? Specifically, how do I write setup.py so that when I do this in Python

Answer 1

What I ended up doing is:

setup(
    name='py_my_lib',
    version=version,  # specified elsewhere
    packages=[''],
    package_dir={'': '.'},
    package_data={'': ['py_my_lib.so']},
)

This way I get to import the lib by its name, and don't have another level of nestedness:

import py_my_lib

and not

from py_my_lib_wrapper import py_my_lib

Answer 2

As is mentioned in setupscript.html#installing-package-data:

setup(
    ...
    package_data={'top_secret_wrapper': ['top_secret.so']},
)

Answer 3

If that library should also be compiled during install you can describe this as an extension module. If you just want to ship it add it as package_data