How can I enable running the "config" command prior to all "build" commands ? Suppose your custom "config" command writes out a file "configdata". When running the install command you can check if this file exists and if not raise an exception which demands to run "python setup.py config":
class MyDistribution(Distribution): def __init__(self, attrs=None): Distribution.__init__(self, attrs=attrs) self.config_file = "configdata" def run_commands(self): if "config" not in self.commands: if not os.path.exists(self.config_file): raise SystemExit, "please run 'python setup.py config'" Distribution.run_commands(self) class MyConfig(config): def run(self): # ... write "configdata" file Bastian