Question

I have created a simple Python module and want to distribute it with pip. I also want to install a Bash completion file together with the module.
I’m installing the module with Python 2.7.1+ and pip 0.8.2.

I have this setup.py:

setup(
    name='jenkinsmon',
    version='0.0.1',
    description='Jenkins Job Monitor',
    long_description=open('README.txt').read(),
    scripts=['bin/jenkinsmon'],
    data_files=[
        ('/etc/bash_completion.d', ['extras/jenkinsmon.completion']),
    ],
    install_requires = [
        'autojenkins',
        'argparse'
    ],
)

Now if I try to install the package with pip install -e ., the Bash completion file never gets installed together with the package.
I also tried workarounds by specifying a MANIFEST.in, like described here:

MANIFEST.in:

include extras/jenkinsmon.completion

But this also doesn’t help – the completion files won’t get installed.
What can I do to install the Bash completion files?

Answer 1

My error (besides not reading the pip-documentation in general) was just to add -e to the pip install parameters, which means to install in “editable” mode. To quote the documentation

Using the –editable or -e option, pip has the capability to install
directly from a version control repository (it currently supports
Subversion, Mercurial, Git, and Bazaar):

pip install -e
svn+http://svn.colorstudy.com/INITools/trunk#egg=initools-dev

This
option shells out to the commandline client for each respective VCS,
so you must have the VCS installed on your system. The repo URL must
begin with svn+ (or hg+, git+, or bzr+) and end with #egg=packagename;
otherwise, pip supports the same URL formats and wire protocols
supported by the VCS itself.

Pip will checkout the source repo into a src/ directory inside the
virtualenv (i.e. pip_test_env/src/initools-dev), and then run python
setup.py develop in that source repo. This “links” the code directly
from the repo into the virtualenv’s site-packages directory (by adding
the repo directory into easy-install.pth), so changes you make in the
source checkout are effective immediately.

If you already have a local VCS checkout you want to keep using, you
can just use pip install -e path/to/repo to install it “editable” in
the same way.

So to install the package permanently into the System, I have to remove -r, then the Bash-completion files are installed as expected.