Alternative to setup.py build_ext

[codeandfire]

Hi,

With commands of the form python setup.py <command> deprecated, is there any alternative to the build_ext command?

This question seems like something that might be covered/addressed somewhere, though I checked the docs and a number of other sources but couldn't find anything. Apologies in advance if I have missed something.

[abravalheri]

Hi @codeandfire, thank you very much for thoroughly exploring the docs and bringing attention to some points that might be problematic. It really helps.

I don't a replacement for "partial" commands is planned (i.e. commands that just build part of the distribution). Users can run python -m build --wheel to compile the entire wheel without passing through the sdist, but there is nothing currently planned to just build the extensions without the rest of the package.

I think that running pip install -e . might have as a side effect compiling the extensions "in-place" and leaving the binary files available under the working directory.

If there is a compelling use case we probably would need to discuss it more deeply (as far as I understand the general desire here would be that setuptools stop concerning about having to provide a CLI utility).

[codeandfire]

Right, that makes sense @abravalheri.

So does that imply that during development, the only way to recompile extension modules and put into effect any changes made to non-Python source code is to rerun pip install -e . ?

[abravalheri]

At least for the foreseeable future yes...

[codeandfire]

I see, thank you!