How remove a program installed with distutils?

I have installed a python application with this setup.py:

#!/usr/bin/env python

from distutils.core import setup
from libyouandme import APP_NAME, APP_DESCRIPTION, APP_VERSION, APP_AUTHORS, APP_HOMEPAGE, APP_LICENSE

setup(
    name=APP_NAME.replace(" ","-").lower(),
    version=APP_VERSION,
    description=APP_DESCRIPTION,
    author="John G",
    author_email="xxx@gmail.com",
    url=APP_HOMEPAGE,
    license=APP_LICENSE,
    scripts=["youandme.py"],
    packages=["libyouandme"],
    data_files=[
        ('share/applications', ['youandme.desktop']),
        ('usr/share/icons/hicolor/16x16/apps', ['icons/hicolor/16x16/apps/you.png']),
        ('usr/share/icons/hicolor/22x22/apps', ['icons/hicolor/22x22/apps/you.png']),
        ('usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps', ['icons/hicolor/48x48/apps/you.png'])],
)

How can I remove this application from my ubuntu machine ?

Do I can do this with distutils ?

Solution

Install the checkinstall Ubuntu package. checkinstall monitors the installation procedure and creates a deb package. This lets you use regular package management commands to remove the software.

First, reinstall the candidate python module/package using checkinstall. Change directory to the directory containing the setup.py file of the candidate python module/package:

cd <PACKAGE_NAME>

Then:

sudo checkinstall -D --fstrans=no python setup.py install

This creates a .deb package, and installs the python module again. You'll be asked a few questions. The default answers should be fine. (But you might change the "name" of the .deb package, when the setup.py file is in a subdirectory of the python module, for example the "source" subdirectory.)

(The saved .deb package now captures how the python package installed itself, and dpkg can remove the python package.)

Then immediately remove the module:

sudo dpkg -r <PACKAGE_NAME>

PS. I've heard that some installation programs are not compatible with checkinstall, though I've never run into any problems myself.