Build a python package with setup.py in CMake

Question

EDIT: The question is a bit too long. Here is my real question: How can I build and install a python package with setuptools (setup.py) inside CMake? The detail of my code is shown below (but with an out-of-source build method, the method with the source is working).

---

I have a project where I need to distribute my own python package. I made a setup.py script but I would like to build & install it with CMake.

I followed Using CMake with setup.py but it only works with one CMakeLists.txt alongside the setup.py and the python folder and without executing cmake from a build directory.

With this layout :

Project/
--build/
--lib/
----python/
------folder1/
------folder2/
------data/
------...
------__init__.py
----setup.py
----CMakeLists.txt
--CMakeLists.txt

and with CMakeLists.txt :

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8.8 FATAL_ERROR)
add_subdirectory(lib)
(..)

and with lib/CMakeLists.txt :

find_program(PYTHON "python")

if (PYTHON)
    set(SETUP_PY_IN "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/setup.py")
    set(SETUP_PY    "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/setup.py")
    set(DEPS        "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/python/__init__.py")
    set(OUTPUT      "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/build")

    configure_file(${SETUP_PY_IN} ${SETUP_PY})

    add_custom_command(OUTPUT ${OUTPUT}
                       COMMAND ${PYTHON}
                       ARGS setup.py build
                       DEPENDS ${DEPS})

    add_custom_target(target ALL DEPENDS ${OUTPUT})

    install(CODE "execute_process(COMMAND ${PYTHON} ${SETUP_PY} install)")
endif()

and with setup.py

from setuptools import setup, find_packages

setup(name="python",
    version="xx",
    author="xx",
    packages = find_packages(),
    package_data = {'': ['*.txt']},
    description="Python lib for xx")

When I run CMake from build directory and then make, the target is built but with nothing. It is as if no packages were found. The installation installs the python package without .py files.

Answer 1

setuptools doesn't know about the out of source build and therefore doesn't find any python source files (because you do not copy them to the binary dir, only the setup.py file seems to exist there). In order to fix this, you would have to copy the python source tree into the CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR.