yaml file not getting copied when installing from setup.py

Question

for my distutils package the yaml file along with python files is not getting copied

setup.py

from distutils.core import setup

files = ["*.yaml", "package/*"]

setup(name = "mypackage",
    version = "0.1",
    description = "description",
    author = "Ciasto",
    author_email = "me@email.com",
    packages = ['package'],
    package_data = {'package' : files },
    scripts = ["scripts/runner"],
) 

this is the project directory structure:

$ tree package/
|____
| |______init__.py
| |____command.py
| |____constants.py
| |____controller.py
| |____utils.py
| |____model.py
| |____products.yaml

Answer 1

package_data is used to add package's data to eggs (dropped in favor) and wheels (not with distutils). You're probably generating source distribution (sdist).

For sdist you need file MANIFEST.in (create it besides setup.py). In your case it should be enough to have one line in it:

include package/*.yaml

See the docs at https://docs.python.org/3/distutils/sourcedist.html#specifying-the-files-to-distribute

and

https://packaging.python.org/guides/using-manifest-in/#using-manifest-in

If you're not going to create wheels you can safely remove files and package_data from setup.py.