How can I use setuptools to generate a console_scripts entry point which calls `python -m mypackage`?

StrugglingProgrammer picture StrugglingProgrammer · Jan 5, 2015 · Viewed 9.5k times · Source

I am trying to be a good Pythonista and following PEP 338 for my package I plan on deploying.

I am also trying to generate my executable scripts upon python setuptools install using setuptools entry_points{'console_scripts': ... } options.

How can I use entry_points to generate a binary that calls python -m mypackage (and passes *args, **kwargs) ?

Here are a few attempts I have made with no success:

setuptools(
...

(1)

entry_points=
       {'console_scripts': ['mypkg=mypkg.__main__'],},

(2)

entry_points=
       {'console_scripts': ['mypkg=mypkg.main'],},

(3)

entry_points=
       {'console_scripts': ['mypkg=python -m mypkg'],},

Primary resources I have been using:

Answer

cel picture cel · Jan 5, 2015

How can I use entry_points to generate a binary that calls python -m mypackage (and passes *args, **kwargs) ?

I think this is the wrong way to look at the problem. You don't want your script to call python -m mypackage, but you want the script to have the same entry point as python -m mypackage

Consider this simple example:

script_proj/
├── script_proj
│   ├── __init__.py
│   └── __main__.py
└── setup.py

and the minimalistic setup.py:

from setuptools import setup

setup(
    name="script_proj",
    packages=["script_proj"],
    entry_points = {
        "console_scripts": [
            "myscript = script_proj.__main__:main",
        ]
    }
)

__main__.py is a dummy module and contains the main method.

def main():
    print("Hello world!")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

After installing, you have the executable myscript, which calls the main method in __main__.py. In this package design python -m script_proj also calls the same main method.