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setuptools — Python package builder

Version: 82.0.1
Type: Pure Python
SPM target: Bundled in the Python framework
Auto-included by: pip (build backend for sdists), _distutils_hack
Total Python modules: 317

The classic Python package builder + the de-facto stdlib distutils replacement (now that distutils was removed in Python 3.12). Bundled so pip install <sdist> against a package whose pyproject.toml declares build-system.requires = ["setuptools"] can locate it. You won't run setuptools directly unless you're authoring a Python package — and on iOS you mostly can't build C extensions anyway.

The shipped tree includes a vendored copy of wheel, packaging, tomli, more_itertools, jaraco.text, importlib_metadata, zipp, autocommand, backports, and platformdirs so the build backend is self-contained.

Modules

Top-level (~30 modules)

Module What it does
setuptools.__init__ Public API — setup(), find_packages(), find_namespace_packages(), Extension, Command, Distribution, Require
setuptools.build_meta PEP 517 build backend entry point — build_wheel, build_sdist, get_requires_for_build_wheel
setuptools.dist The Distribution class — central metadata + command registry
setuptools.discovery Auto-discovery of packages and modules (PackageFinder, PEP420PackageFinder)
setuptools.extension Extension — C-extension declaration for setup.py builds
setuptools.depends Dependency-introspection helpers (Require)
setuptools.installer fetch_build_eggs() — internal sdist-time dependency fetching
setuptools.archive_util tar / zip / egg unpacking
setuptools.glob Glob enhanced with **/ recursion
setuptools.modified mtime-vs-target staleness checks
setuptools.monkey Distutils monkey-patching layer
setuptools.msvc MSVC compiler discovery (Windows; no-op on iOS)
setuptools.namespaces PEP 420 namespace-package install support
setuptools.warnings SetuptoolsDeprecationWarning + helpers
setuptools.errors BaseError, OptionError, RemovedCommandError, etc.
setuptools.logging Logging configuration
setuptools.unicode_utils Path-encoding normalization
setuptools.windows_support Windows-only file-attribute helpers (no-op on iOS)
setuptools.launch, setuptools.wheel, setuptools.version Misc helpers
setuptools._core_metadata Core-metadata 2.x emission
setuptools._entry_points Entry-point parser
setuptools._imp, setuptools._importlib Bridges to imp / importlib
setuptools._normalization, setuptools._reqs, setuptools._static, setuptools._path, setuptools._itertools, setuptools._shutil Internal utilities
setuptools._scripts, setuptools._discovery Script wrappers + helpers

setuptools.command — setup-script commands

24 modules. The ones you might invoke via python -m build or pip install:

Module Command name What it does
command.build build Top-level build orchestrator
command.build_py build_py Copy .py files to build dir
command.build_ext build_ext Compile C extensions (mostly unused on iOS — no compiler)
command.build_clib build_clib Build static C libraries
command.bdist_egg bdist_egg Legacy egg builder
command.bdist_wheel bdist_wheel Wheel builder (delegates to wheel package)
command.bdist_rpm bdist_rpm RPM builder (unused on iOS)
command.sdist sdist Source-distribution builder
command.install, command.install_lib, command.install_egg_info, command.install_scripts install* Install commands
command.develop develop Editable install (pip install -e .)
command.dist_info dist_info Emit .dist-info metadata
command.editable_wheel editable_wheel PEP 660 editable-wheel emission
command.egg_info egg_info Emit .egg-info metadata
command.easy_install easy_install The legacy installer (deprecated)
command.rotate, command.saveopts, command.setopt, command.alias, command.test, command._requirestxt misc Misc + deprecated commands

setuptools._distutils — bundled distutils

The full distutils standard-library module, vendored because Python 3.12+ removed it. ~32 modules including ccompiler, dist, cmd, extension, sysconfig, unixccompiler, etc. + a command/ sub-package + compat/ + compilers/ + tests/.

setuptools.config — pyproject.toml / setup.cfg parsing

Submodule Provides
config.pyprojecttoml pyproject.toml [project] table parser
config.setupcfg setup.cfg parser
config.expand Token expansion (file:, attr:, find:)
config._apply_pyprojecttoml Apply parsed pyproject metadata to Distribution
config._validate_pyproject/ JSON-schema validators (auto-generated)

setuptools.compat

Per-version Python compatibility shims: py39.py, py310.py, py311.py, py312.py.

setuptools._vendor

Vendored copies of wheel 0.46.3, packaging 26.0, tomli 2.4.0, more_itertools 10.8.0, jaraco.text 4.0.0, jaraco_context 6.1.0, jaraco_functools 4.4.0, importlib_metadata 8.7.1, zipp 3.23.0, autocommand 2.2.2, backports.tarfile 1.2.0, platformdirs 4.4.0. These are dependencies of the build backend itself — using vendored copies avoids bootstrap problems where setuptools needs packaging before the user's environment has it.

iOS-specific notes

  • No iOS-specific patches to setuptools itself.
  • build_ext mostly broken on iOS — there's no C compiler on device. Most sdists that need to build C extensions will fail. The bundle pre-compiles native extensions at framework-build time on macOS so this is a non-issue for shipped packages.
  • Vendored _vendor/ is mostly dead weight on iOS. ~5 MB. The runtime path doesn't import it unless you invoke pip install on an sdist.
  • setuptools.command.easy_install deprecated — don't use it. Use pip.
  • PEP 517 backend (build_meta) works for pure-Python sdists. CodeBench's in-app pip install foo.tar.gz flow hits this path if pyproject.toml declares setuptools as the backend.

Standalone example

You almost never invoke setuptools directly. The two realistic uses:

1. Build a wheel from a source tree (CodeBench's pip install ./mypkg flow):

from setuptools.build_meta import build_wheel
out_dir = "/path/Documents/wheels"
wheel_name = build_wheel(out_dir, config_settings=None)
print("built:", out_dir + "/" + wheel_name)

2. Parse a pyproject.toml to inspect metadata without invoking pip:

from setuptools.config.pyprojecttoml import read_configuration
cfg = read_configuration("/path/Documents/mypkg/pyproject.toml")
print(cfg["project"]["name"], cfg["project"].get("version"))
print(cfg["project"].get("dependencies", []))

The setup() function is for setup.py files — useful only if you author packages.

See also