<!DOCTYPE html> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta charset="utf-8" /> <title>distutils — Building and installing Python modules — Python 3.7.4 documentation</title> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/pydoctheme.css" type="text/css" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/pygments.css" type="text/css" /> <script type="text/javascript" id="documentation_options" data-url_root="../" src="../_static/documentation_options.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/jquery.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/underscore.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/doctools.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/language_data.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/sidebar.js"></script> <link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" title="Search within Python 3.7.4 documentation" href="../_static/opensearch.xml"/> <link rel="author" title="About these documents" href="../about.html" /> <link rel="index" title="Index" href="../genindex.html" /> <link rel="search" title="Search" href="../search.html" /> <link rel="copyright" title="Copyright" href="../copyright.html" /> <link rel="next" title="ensurepip — Bootstrapping the pip installer" href="ensurepip.html" /> <link rel="prev" title="Software Packaging and Distribution" href="distribution.html" /> <link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/png" href="../_static/py.png" /> <link rel="canonical" href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/distutils.html" /> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/copybutton.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/switchers.js"></script> <style> @media only screen { table.full-width-table { width: 100%; } } </style> </head><body> <div class="related" role="navigation" aria-label="related navigation"> <h3>Navigation</h3> <ul> <li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px"> <a href="../genindex.html" title="General Index" accesskey="I">index</a></li> <li class="right" > <a href="../py-modindex.html" title="Python Module Index" >modules</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="ensurepip.html" title="ensurepip — Bootstrapping the pip installer" accesskey="N">next</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="distribution.html" title="Software Packaging and Distribution" accesskey="P">previous</a> |</li> <li><img src="../_static/py.png" alt="" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-top: -1px"/></li> <li><a href="https://www.python.org/">Python</a> »</li> <li> <span class="language_switcher_placeholder">en</span> <span class="version_switcher_placeholder">3.7.4</span> <a href="../index.html">Documentation </a> » </li> <li class="nav-item nav-item-1"><a href="index.html" >The Python Standard Library</a> »</li> <li class="nav-item nav-item-2"><a href="distribution.html" accesskey="U">Software Packaging and Distribution</a> »</li> <li class="right"> <div class="inline-search" style="display: none" role="search"> <form class="inline-search" action="../search.html" method="get"> <input placeholder="Quick search" type="text" name="q" /> <input type="submit" value="Go" /> <input type="hidden" name="check_keywords" value="yes" /> <input type="hidden" name="area" value="default" /> </form> </div> <script type="text/javascript">$('.inline-search').show(0);</script> | </li> </ul> </div> <div class="document"> <div class="documentwrapper"> <div class="bodywrapper"> <div class="body" role="main"> <div class="section" id="module-distutils"> <span id="distutils-building-and-installing-python-modules"></span><h1><a class="reference internal" href="#module-distutils" title="distutils: Support for building and installing Python modules into an existing Python installation."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">distutils</span></code></a> — Building and installing Python modules<a class="headerlink" href="#module-distutils" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1> <hr class="docutils" /> <p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-distutils" title="distutils: Support for building and installing Python modules into an existing Python installation."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">distutils</span></code></a> package provides support for building and installing additional modules into a Python installation. The new modules may be either 100%-pure Python, or may be extension modules written in C, or may be collections of Python packages which include modules coded in both Python and C.</p> <p>Most Python users will <em>not</em> want to use this module directly, but instead use the cross-version tools maintained by the Python Packaging Authority. In particular, <a class="reference external" href="https://setuptools.readthedocs.io/en/latest/">setuptools</a> is an enhanced alternative to <a class="reference internal" href="#module-distutils" title="distutils: Support for building and installing Python modules into an existing Python installation."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">distutils</span></code></a> that provides:</p> <ul class="simple"> <li><p>support for declaring project dependencies</p></li> <li><p>additional mechanisms for configuring which files to include in source releases (including plugins for integration with version control systems)</p></li> <li><p>the ability to declare project “entry points”, which can be used as the basis for application plugin systems</p></li> <li><p>the ability to automatically generate Windows command line executables at installation time rather than needing to prebuild them</p></li> <li><p>consistent behaviour across all supported Python versions</p></li> </ul> <p>The recommended <a class="reference external" href="https://pip.pypa.io/">pip</a> installer runs all <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">setup.py</span></code> scripts with <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">setuptools</span></code>, even if the script itself only imports <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">distutils</span></code>. Refer to the <a class="reference external" href="https://packaging.python.org">Python Packaging User Guide</a> for more information.</p> <p>For the benefits of packaging tool authors and users seeking a deeper understanding of the details of the current packaging and distribution system, the legacy <a class="reference internal" href="#module-distutils" title="distutils: Support for building and installing Python modules into an existing Python installation."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">distutils</span></code></a> based user documentation and API reference remain available:</p> <ul class="simple"> <li><p><a class="reference internal" href="../install/index.html#install-index"><span class="std std-ref">Installing Python Modules (Legacy version)</span></a></p></li> <li><p><a class="reference internal" href="../distutils/index.html#distutils-index"><span class="std std-ref">Distributing Python Modules (Legacy version)</span></a></p></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="sphinxsidebar" role="navigation" aria-label="main navigation"> <div class="sphinxsidebarwrapper"> <h4>Previous topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="distribution.html" title="previous chapter">Software Packaging and Distribution</a></p> <h4>Next topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="ensurepip.html" title="next chapter"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ensurepip</span></code> — Bootstrapping the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">pip</span></code> installer</a></p> <div role="note" aria-label="source link"> <h3>This Page</h3> <ul class="this-page-menu"> <li><a href="../bugs.html">Report a Bug</a></li> <li> <a href="https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/3.7/Doc/library/distutils.rst" rel="nofollow">Show Source </a> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="clearer"></div> </div> <div class="related" role="navigation" aria-label="related navigation"> <h3>Navigation</h3> <ul> <li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px"> <a href="../genindex.html" title="General Index" >index</a></li> <li class="right" > <a href="../py-modindex.html" title="Python Module Index" >modules</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="ensurepip.html" title="ensurepip — Bootstrapping the pip installer" >next</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="distribution.html" title="Software Packaging and Distribution" >previous</a> |</li> <li><img src="../_static/py.png" alt="" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-top: -1px"/></li> <li><a href="https://www.python.org/">Python</a> »</li> <li> <span class="language_switcher_placeholder">en</span> <span class="version_switcher_placeholder">3.7.4</span> <a href="../index.html">Documentation </a> » </li> <li class="nav-item nav-item-1"><a href="index.html" >The Python Standard Library</a> »</li> <li class="nav-item nav-item-2"><a href="distribution.html" >Software Packaging and Distribution</a> »</li> <li class="right"> <div class="inline-search" style="display: none" role="search"> <form class="inline-search" action="../search.html" method="get"> <input placeholder="Quick search" type="text" name="q" /> <input type="submit" value="Go" /> <input type="hidden" name="check_keywords" value="yes" /> <input type="hidden" name="area" value="default" /> </form> </div> <script type="text/javascript">$('.inline-search').show(0);</script> | </li> </ul> </div> <div class="footer"> © <a href="../copyright.html">Copyright</a> 2001-2019, Python Software Foundation. <br /> The Python Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation. <a href="https://www.python.org/psf/donations/">Please donate.</a> <br /> Last updated on Jul 13, 2019. <a href="../bugs.html">Found a bug</a>? <br /> Created using <a href="http://sphinx.pocoo.org/">Sphinx</a> 2.0.1. </div> </body> </html>