How to include package data with setuptools/distutils?

I just had this same issue. The solution, was simply to remove include_package_data=True.

After reading here, I realized that include_package_data aims to include files from version control, as opposed to merely "include package data" as the name implies. From the docs:

The data files [of include_package_data] must be under CVS or Subversion control

...

If you want finer-grained control over what files are included (for example, if you have documentation files in your package directories and want to exclude them from installation), then you can also use the package_data keyword.

Taking that argument out fixed it, which is coincidentally why it also worked when you switched to distutils, since it doesn't take that argument.

Following @Joe 's recommendation to remove the include_package_data=True line also worked for me.

To elaborate a bit more, I have no MANIFEST.in file. I use Git and not CVS.

Repository takes this kind of shape:

/myrepo
    - .git/
    - setup.py
    - myproject
        - __init__.py
        - some_mod
            - __init__.py
            - animals.py
            - rocks.py
        - config
            - __init__.py
            - settings.py
            - other_settings.special
            - cool.huh
            - other_settings.xml
        - words
            - __init__.py
            word_set.txt

setup.py:

from setuptools import setup, find_packages
import os.path

setup (
    name='myproject',
    version = "4.19",
    packages = find_packages(),  
    # package_dir={'mypkg': 'src/mypkg'},  # didnt use this.
    package_data = {
        # If any package contains *.txt or *.rst files, include them:
        '': ['*.txt', '*.xml', '*.special', '*.huh'],
    },

#
    # Oddly enough, include_package_data=True prevented package_data from working.
    # include_package_data=True, # Commented out.
    data_files=[
#               ('bitmaps', ['bm/b1.gif', 'bm/b2.gif']),
        ('/opt/local/myproject/etc', ['myproject/config/settings.py', 'myproject/config/other_settings.special']),
        ('/opt/local/myproject/etc', [os.path.join('myproject/config', 'cool.huh')]),
#
        ('/opt/local/myproject/etc', [os.path.join('myproject/config', 'other_settings.xml')]),
        ('/opt/local/myproject/data', [os.path.join('myproject/words', 'word_set.txt')]),
    ],

    install_requires=[ 'jsonschema',
        'logging', ],

     entry_points = {
        'console_scripts': [
            # Blah...
        ], },
)

I run python setup.py sdist for a source distrib (haven't tried binary).

And when inside of a brand new virtual environment, I have a myproject-4.19.tar.gz, file, and I use

(venv) pip install ~/myproject-4.19.tar.gz
...

And other than everything getting installed to my virtual environment's site-packages, those special data files get installed to /opt/local/myproject/data and /opt/local/myproject/etc.

I realize that this is an old question, but for people finding their way here via Google: package_data is a low-down, dirty lie. It is only used when building binary packages (python setup.py bdist ...) but not when building source packages (python setup.py sdist ...). This is, of course, ridiculous -- one would expect that building a source distribution would result in a collection of files that could be sent to someone else to built the binary distribution.

In any case, using MANIFEST.in will work both for binary and for source distributions.