# Controlling files in the distribution

For the most common use cases, `setuptools` will automatically find out which files are necessary for distributing the package. More precisely, the following files are included in a source distribution by default:

- pure Python module files implied by the `py-modules` and `packages` configuration parameters in `pyproject.toml` and/or equivalent in `setup.cfg`/`setup.py`;

- C source files mentioned in the `ext_modules` or `libraries` `setup()` arguments;

- Files that match the following glob patterns: `tests/test*.py`, `test/test*.py`;

- Scripts specified by the `scripts-files` configuration parameter in `pyproject.toml` or `scripts` in `setup.py`/`setup.cfg`;

- All files specified by the `package-data` and `data-files` configuration parameters in `pyproject.toml` and/or equivalent in `setup.cfg`/`setup.py`;

- The file specified by the `license_file` option in `setup.cfg`;

- All files specified by the `license-files` configuration parameter in `pyproject.toml` and/or equivalent in `setup.cfg`/`setup.py`; note that if you don’t explicitly set this parameter, `setuptools` will include any files that match the following glob patterns: `LICEN[CS]E*`, `COPYING*`, `NOTICE*`, `AUTHORS**`;

- `pyproject.toml`;

- `setup.cfg`;

- `setup.py`;

- `README`, `README.txt`, `README.rst` or `README.md`;

- `MANIFEST.in`

Please note that the list above is guaranteed to work with the last stable version of `setuptools`. The behavior of older versions might differ.

Note

Added in version v69.0.0: `setuptools` will attempt to include type information files by default in the distribution (`.pyi` and `py.typed`, as specified in PEP 561), as long as they are contained inside of a package directory (for the time being there is no automatic support for top-level `.pyi` files).

Please note however that this feature is EXPERIMENTAL and may change in the future.

If you have `.pyi` and `py.typed` files in your project, but do not wish to distribute them, you can opt out by setting exclude-package-data to remove them.

However, when building more complex packages (e.g. packages that include non-Python files, or that need to use custom C headers), you might find that not all files present in your project folder are included in package distribution archive.

If you are using a Revision Control System, such as git or mercurial, and your source distributions only need to include files that you’re tracking in revision control, you can use a `setuptools` plugin, such as setuptools-scm or setuptools-svn to automatically include all tracked files into the `sdist`.

Alternatively, if you need finer control over the files (e.g. you don’t want to distribute CI/CD-related files) or you need automatically generated files, you can add a `MANIFEST.in` file at the root of your project, to specify any files that the default file location algorithm doesn’t catch.

This file contains instructions that tell `setuptools` which files exactly should be part of the `sdist` (or not).

Attention

Please note that `setuptools` supports the `MANIFEST.in`, and not `MANIFEST` (no extension). Any documentation, tutorial or example that recommends using `MANIFEST` (no extension) is likely outdated.

Tip

The `MANIFEST.in` file contains commands that allow you to discover and manipulate lists of files. There are many commands that can be used with different objectives, but you should try to not make your `MANIFEST.in` file too fine grained.

A good idea is to start with a `graft` command (to add all files inside a set of directories) and then fine tune the file selection by removing the excess or adding isolated files.

A `MANIFEST.in` file consists of commands, one per line, instructing setuptools to add or remove some set of files from the sdist. The commands are:

Command | Description
--- | ---
`include pat1 pat2 ...` | Add all files matching any of the listed patterns (Files must be given as paths relative to the root of the project)
`exclude pat1 pat2 ...` | Remove all files matching any of the listed patterns (Files must be given as paths relative to the root of the project)
`recursive-include dir-pattern pat1 pat2 ...` | Add all files under directories matching `dir-pattern` that match any of the listed patterns
`recursive-exclude dir-pattern pat1 pat2 ...` | Remove all files under directories matching `dir-pattern` that match any of the listed patterns
`global-include pat1 pat2 ...` | Add all files anywhere in the source tree matching any of the listed patterns
`global-exclude pat1 pat2 ...` | Remove all files anywhere in the source tree matching any of the listed patterns
`graft dir-pattern` | Add all files under directories matching `dir-pattern`
`prune dir-pattern` | Remove all files under directories matching `dir-pattern`

The patterns here are glob-style patterns: `*` matches zero or more regular filename characters (on Unix, everything except forward slash; on Windows, everything except backslash and colon); `?` matches a single regular filename character, and `[chars]` matches any one of the characters between the square brackets (which may contain character ranges, e.g., `[a-z]` or `[a-fA-F0-9]`). Setuptools also has support for `**` matching zero or more characters including forward slash, backslash, and colon.

Directory patterns are relative to the root of the project directory; e.g., `graft example*` will include a directory named `examples` in the project root but will not include `docs/examples/`.

File & directory names in `MANIFEST.in` should be `/`-separated; setuptools will automatically convert the slashes to the local platform’s appropriate directory separator.

Commands are processed in the order they appear in the `MANIFEST.in` file. For example, given the commands:

    graft tests
    global-exclude *.py[cod]

the contents of the directory tree `tests` will first be added to the sdist, and then after that all files in the sdist with a `.pyc`, `.pyo`, or `.pyd` extension will be removed from the sdist. If the commands were in the opposite order, then `*.pyc` files etc. would be only be removed from what was already in the sdist before adding `tests`, and if `tests` happened to contain any `*.pyc` files, they would end up included in the sdist because the exclusion happened before they were included.

An example of `MANIFEST.in` for a simple project that organized according to a src-layout is:

    # MANIFEST.in -- just for illustration
    graft src
    graft tests
    graft docs
    # `-> adds all files inside a directory

    include tox.ini
    # `-> matches file paths relative to the root of the project

    global-exclude *~ *.py[cod] *.so
    # `-> matches file names (regardless of directory)

Once the correct files are present in the `sdist`, they can then be used by binary extensions during the build process, or included in the final wheel [1] if you configure `setuptools` with `include_package_data=True`.

Important

Please note that, when using `include_package_data=True`, only files inside the package directory are included in the final `wheel`, by default.

So for example, if you create a Python project that uses setuptools-scm and have a `tests` directory outside of the package folder, the `tests` directory will be present in the `sdist` but not in the `wheel` [2].

See Data Files Support for more information.

# Caching and Troubleshooting

Setuptools automatically creates a few directories to host build artefacts and cache files, such as `build`, `dist`, `*.egg-info`. While cache is useful to speed up incremental builds, in some edge cases it might become stale. If you feel that caching is causing problems to your build, specially after changes in configuration or in the directory/file structure., consider removing `build`, `dist`, `*.egg-info` [3] before rebuilding or reinstalling your project.

[1]

You can think about the build process as two stages: first the `sdist` will be created and then the `wheel` will be produced from that `sdist`.

[2]

This happens because the `sdist` can contain files that are useful during development or the build process itself, but not in runtime (e.g. tests, docs, examples, etc…). The `wheel`, on the other hand, is a file format that has been optimized and is ready to be unpacked into a running installation of Python or Virtual Environment. Therefore it only contains items that are required during runtime.

[3]

When working from an extracted sdist (e.g. for patching), you might also consider removing the `PKG-INFO` file to force its recreation.