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I am using distutil to install my python code using

python setup.py install

I run into problems when I want to install an older branch of my code over a new one: setup.py install won't overwrite older files. A work around is touching (touch <filename>) all files so they are forced to be newer than those installed, but this is pretty ugly.

What I am looking for is an option to force overwriting of all files, eg. something like

python setup.py --force install

Any Ideas?

Alexis Wilke
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Jürgen Fuchsberger
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3 Answers3

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The Python developers had the same idea, they just put the option after the command:

python setup.py install --force

The distutils documentation doesn't mention the --force option specifically, but you can find it by using the --help option:

python setup.py --help install
Alexis Wilke
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Aaron Curtis
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    Note, the --force overwrites, and does not remove files. I find I depend on pip uninstall when I need to switch versions. Otherwise, you do not know what is lurking. If pip is not an option, then I think you have to manually remove /bin/ and /lib/python/site-packages/. Again, pip is your friend. – zerocog Aug 21 '17 at 18:51
  • The `--force` option does not appear to be documented nor functional in python3. – ealfonso Apr 29 '23 at 20:38
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Go to the setup.py directory and I simply use:

pip install .

It works for me.

陳子軼
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  • It also works for me. It properly overwrites my files, even `install --force` didn't do that for some reason. setup.py seems to be properly executed and all my files are copied to where they should go. – sezanzeb Nov 29 '20 at 14:00
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    https://stackoverflow.com/a/15731459/4417769 "So basically, use pip. It only offers improvements" – sezanzeb Nov 29 '20 at 14:58
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In my case, I have to remove the build and dist folders

rm -rf build
rm -rf dist
python3 setup.py install
Achyut Sarma
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