Cleaning build directory in setup.py

Question

How could I make my setup.py pre-delete and post-delete the build directory?

score 145 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 24 '15 at 16:39

145

Does this answer it? IIRC, you'll need to use the --all flag to get rid of stuff outside of build/lib:

python setup.py clean --all

edited Jun 24 '15 at 16:39

Jim Pivarski

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answered Oct 20 '09 at 14:12

Matt Ball

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3

It seems not all `setup.py` scripts support `clean`. Example: NumPy – kevinarpe Jun 15 '16 at 07:14
clean works in my case for some files, but e.g. the .egg directory stays there... any way to "deep clean"? – ntg May 20 '20 at 08:50
ahhh, and in my case there was a makefile, so I could `make clean` from there... (simple module created with cookiecutter) – ntg May 20 '20 at 10:17
2

Unfortunately this does not also clean the `dist` and `egg-info` directories, so I just made a shell script to `rm -rf ./build ./dist ./*egg-info`, letting PyCharm's run configuration manage the working directory. – hlongmore Jul 02 '20 at 00:23

score 15 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 20 '09 at 14:13

For pre-deletion, just delete it with distutils.dir_util.remove_tree before calling setup.

For post-delete, I assume you only want to post-delete after selected commands. Subclass the respective command, override its run method (to invoke remove_tree after calling the base run), and pass the new command into the cmdclass dictionary of setup.

score 11 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 20 '17 at 16:55

11

This clears the build directory before to install

python setup.py clean --all install

But according to your requirements: This will do it before, and after

python setup.py clean --all install clean --all

answered Jan 20 '17 at 16:55

Adrian Lopez

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Second `clean --all` is being ignored. I tried the following `python3 ./setup.py clean --all install clean --all` and the `build` directory persists. In the output, no mention about any cleaning after `install`. – Hans Deragon Jul 16 '20 at 14:57

score 6 · Answer 4 · answered May 14 '15 at 15:44

6

Here's an answer that combines the programmatic approach of Martin's answer with the functionality of Matt's answer (a clean that takes care of all possible build areas):

from distutils.core import setup
from distutils.command.clean import clean
from distutils.command.install import install

class MyInstall(install):

    # Calls the default run command, then deletes the build area
    # (equivalent to "setup clean --all").
    def run(self):
        install.run(self)
        c = clean(self.distribution)
        c.all = True
        c.finalize_options()
        c.run()

if __name__ == '__main__':

    setup(
        name="myname",
        ...
        cmdclass={'install': MyInstall}
    )

answered May 14 '15 at 15:44

Alan

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to simply run a command after another, an "alias" seems like a better solution: https://setuptools.readthedocs.io/en/latest/setuptools.html#alias-define-shortcuts-for-commonly-used-commands – Florian Mar 08 '19 at 10:24
@Florian, I imagine that an alias could be a better solution in some situations. In my situation, however, I generate the setup.py file once for each package I produce. It's only a one-time cost to put the logic in the template that generates the setup.py file. – Alan Mar 08 '19 at 16:08

Cleaning build directory in setup.py

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