Python Setuptools: quick way to add scripts without "main" function as "console_scripts" entry points

Question

My request seems unorthodox, but I would like to quickly package an old repository, consisting mostly of python executable scripts.

The problem is that those scripts were not designed as modules, so some of them execute code directly at the module top-level, and some other have the if __name__=='__main__' part.

How would you distribute those scripts using setuptools, without too much rewrite?

• I know I could just put them under the scripts option of setup(), but it's not advised, and also it doesn't allow me to rename them.
• I would like to skip defining a main() function in all those scripts, also because some scripts call weird recursive functions with side effects on global variables, so I'm a bit afraid of breaking stuff.
• When I try providing only the module name as console_scripts (e.g "myscript=mypkg.myscript" instead of "myscript=mypkg.myscript:main"), it logically complains after installation that a module is not callable.

Is there a way to create scripts from modules? At least when they have a if __name__=='__main__'?

Answer 1

There's some design considerations, but I would recommend using a __main__.py for this.

1. it allows all command line invocations to share argument parsing logic
2. you don't have to touch the scripts, at all
3. it is explicit (no do-nothing functions that exist to trigger import)
4. it enables refactoring out any other common stateful logic, since __main__.py is never imported when you import your package
5. convention. People expect to find command line invocations in __main__.py.

__main__.py

from pathlib import Path
from runpy import run_path

pkg_dir = Path(__file__).resolve().parent

def execute_script():
    script_pth = pkg_dir / "local path to script"
    run_path(str(script_pth), run_name="__main__")

Then, you can set your_package.__main__:execute_script as a console script in setup.py/pyproject.toml. You can obviously have as many scripts as you like this way.