diff --git a/pkgs/sage-bootstrap/MANIFEST.in b/pkgs/sage-bootstrap/MANIFEST.in
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..c579ab3f7c6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/sage-bootstrap/MANIFEST.in
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+include VERSION.txt
+include pyproject.toml
+include test
+include tox.ini
+# Avoid the "src" symlinks, which would be expanded to copies of the trees.
+prune sage_bootstrap/sage_root_source/build/pkgs/*/src
+#
+global-exclude .tox
+global-exclude *~*
+global-exclude *.bak
+global-exclude __pycache__
+global-exclude *.pyc
diff --git a/pkgs/sage-bootstrap/VERSION.txt b/pkgs/sage-bootstrap/VERSION.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..41184bff2fe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/sage-bootstrap/VERSION.txt
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+9.7.beta8
diff --git a/pkgs/sage-bootstrap/pyproject.toml b/pkgs/sage-bootstrap/pyproject.toml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..9787c3bdf00
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/sage-bootstrap/pyproject.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+[build-system]
+requires = ["setuptools", "wheel"]
+build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
diff --git a/pkgs/sage-bootstrap/setup.cfg b/pkgs/sage-bootstrap/setup.cfg
index 21ae77ba289..b2fd6ba947f 100644
--- a/pkgs/sage-bootstrap/setup.cfg
+++ b/pkgs/sage-bootstrap/setup.cfg
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # -*- conf-unix -*-
 [metadata]
-name = sagemath-standard
-version = 1.0
+name = sage-bootstrap
+version = file: VERSION.txt
 description = System package database and build scripts for the SageMath distribution
 long_description = file: README.rst
 long_description_content_type = text/x-rst
@@ -32,11 +32,17 @@ python_requires = >=2.7
 
 scripts =
     # User-facing scripts: System package database
-    bin/sage-spkg-info
-    bin/sage-get-system-packages
-    bin/sage-guess-package-system
-    bin/sage-print-system-package-command
-    bin/sage-package
+    sage_bootstrap/sage_root_source/build/bin/sage-spkg-info
+    sage_bootstrap/sage_root_source/build/bin/sage-get-system-packages
+    sage_bootstrap/sage_root_source/build/bin/sage-guess-package-system
+    sage_bootstrap/sage_root_source/build/bin/sage-print-system-package-command
+    sage_bootstrap/sage_root_source/build/bin/sage-package
 
 packages =
     sage_bootstrap
+    sage_bootstrap.download
+    sage_bootstrap.compat
+
+[options.package_data]
+sage_bootstrap =
+    sage_root_source/**
diff --git a/pkgs/sage-bootstrap/setup.py b/pkgs/sage-bootstrap/setup.py
index b05dcc386ca..7163e2e9c73 100755
--- a/pkgs/sage-bootstrap/setup.py
+++ b/pkgs/sage-bootstrap/setup.py
@@ -1,18 +1,4 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env sage-bootstrap-python
 
-from distutils.core import setup
-
-setup(
-    name='sage_bootstrap',
-    description='',
-    author='Volker Braun',
-    author_email='vbraun.name@gmail.com',
-    packages=[
-        'sage_bootstrap',
-        'sage_bootstrap.download',
-        'sage_bootstrap.compat'
-    ],
-    scripts=['bin/sage-package', 'bin/sage-download-file', 'bin/sage-bootstrap-python'],
-    version='1.0',
-    url='https://www.sagemath.org',
-)
+from setuptools import setup
+setup()