[question] A way to install non-code file into "site-packages" itself

[kshpytsya]

I am looking for a way to use flit to create a package that would install a file into "site-packages" directory proper (i.e. not into some its sub-directory). I need this to be able to install a .pth file, as discussed here.

BTW, I wasn't able to get the recipe from that post working, but instead came up with the following:

setup.py

from setuptools import setup

setup(
    name="xxx1",
    package_dir={"": "src"},
    py_modules=["xxx1"],
    data_files=[("/", ["src/xxx1.pth"])],
)

src/xxx1.pth

import xxx1

src/xxx1.py

print("xxx1 imported")

According to this, my approach uses an undefined behavior. Moreover, it works only if installing from a wheel, so e.g. venv/bin/pip install . fails with an understandable error: could not create '/xxx1.pth': Permission denied.

I have seen this but as far as I understand, it only allows files inside package directories.

I am perfectly ok with having src/xxx1/__init__.py instead of src/xxx1.py (BTW, thanks for finally making the src layout possible) but I do need a way to install .../site-packages/xxx1.pth file.

[takluyver]

Sorry, that's not supported, and not likely to be supported. Flit is very much aimed at the 80% in the 80/20 rule, so if you want to do something unusual, you'll probably need to use another tool.

(I'm also especially disinclined to support this use case, because I think the executable .pth files are a misfeature. There are a couple of legitimate use cases - like coverage measurements in subprocesses - that can't currently be done any other way, but I still don't like them.)

[kshpytsya]

Kind thanks for your prompt reply. I suppose I will stick to setup.py for this particular package. Should you be curious, this is about addition of plugin mechanism to a certain major library, authors of which I believe would not want to include the feature upstream or it would take ages to come up with exact design that would satisfy everyone.