What is setup.py?

Question

Can anyone please explain, what is setup.py and how can it be configured or used?

Answer 1

setup.py is a python file,  Which has all the detail about the module/package you are about to install has been packaged and distributed with Distutils.

The Distutils is the standard for distributing Python Modules.

So, setup.py file allows you to easily install Python packages. So by writing the following command, you can easily install setup.py.

$ python setup.py install

To know more about this you can have a look at the following video tutorial:-

Answer 2

In Python, setup.py can be used for the multi-platform installers and make files. But, If you’re familiar with command-line installations, then make && make install translates to python setup.py build && python setup.py install.

Some packages are pure Python and are the only byte-compiled. Others may contain native code, which will require a native compiler (like gcc or cl) and a Python interfacing module (like swig or pyrex).