Python package setup script install binary executable

I just ran into this issue myself. My solution was three-fold.

1. I added the program, e.g. awesometool, to my package structure so I could add it via the package_data keyword: package_data={'awesomepkg': ['awesometool']}. This causes it to actually be copied into the same folder as the main init.py during installation.

2. I made a python script similar to your step 2. However, instead of the relative path, I first import awesomepkg and use awesomepkg.__path__ to get the absolute path to the installation folder for the package. This would look like:

   import awesomepkg
   import subprocess as sp
   import sys
   
   path = awesomepkg.__path__[0]
   command = path + "/awesometool"
   sp.call([command] + sys.argv)
   

   I also used subprocess instead of system, but the result should be the same.

3. I added this script to the scripts keyword of setup()