Make distutils place compiled extensions in the right folder

Question

I wrote a Python C extension that I'm building with distutils. This is setup.py:

from distutils.core import setup, Extension

utilsmodule = Extension('utils', sources = ['utilsmodule.c'])

setup (name = 'myPackage',
       version = '1.0',
       description = 'My package',
       ext_modules = [utilsmodule])

When I run python setup.y build, the extension is built correctly but the .pyd file goes into the folder build/lib.win-amd64-3.7, and not into the module's root where Python looks for modules to import. I need to move that file out of build after building to be able to import it.

I thought about adding a line after setup() that moves the file, but that seems a bit dirty, I'm guessing that distutils should do that work.

What is the right way to compile an extension in a way that it can be imported by other Python files immediately after build?

Answer 1

distutils should do that work.

It shouldn't. Building is just an intermediate phase to packaging, installing and using.

What is the right way to compile an extension in a way that it can be imported by other Python files immediately after build?

There is no such a way. You can set %PYTHONPATH% to point to build/lib.win-amd64-3.7 and import the module directly from build/.

Or you may try to bend distutils:

from distutils.core import setup
from distutils.command.build_ext import build_ext as _build_ext
import os

class build_ext(_build_ext):
    def run(self):
        _build_ext.run(self)
        os.rename("build/lib.win-amd64-3.7/%s" % mypydname, dest_dir)

setup(
    …
    cmdclass={'build_ext': build_ext},
    …
)

but any way you have to decide where to move the compiled module.