Hello, thanks also to the feedback of this ML members, I manage to get going with debian packages using distutils + setuptools + stdeb. There are a few things that still puzzle me though on the data_files parameter of the setup script. The need for a MANIFEST.in file ------------------------------- Apparently including the list of files in `data_files` is not sufficient for them to be included in the distribution. I found this question on StackOverflow: http://stackoverflow.com/q/2994396/146792 and the accepted answer states that it was a bug fixed in python 2.7. (most probably this one: http://bugs.python.org/issue2279). Although I am running ubuntu 11.04 (shipping python 2.7.1+) the behaviour for me is still the old, possibly buggy one. What am I doing wrong? Data files for modules (instead than for packages) -------------------------------------------------- The small application I am testing my packaging skills with, has a file structure like this: . ├── distribute_setup.py ├── MANIFEST.in ├── setup.py └── src ├── prog.py ├── scrapedata.py └── data.yml In my distribution I only want to ship `prog.py` and `data.yml`, ignoring `scrapedata.py`. Initially I managed to build the .deb package by creating an `__init__.py` file in the `src` directory and then putting in my setup.py something like: packages = find_packages(), package_data = {'src': ['data.yml'], but then I realised that doing so I was creating a `src` directory under `/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages`, which seems very wrong (src is just a directory for me to keep my files organised, it is not a package). So I tried to do something like: py_modules = ['src/prog'], data_files=['', ['src/data.yml']], but - beside not working (see following question) - I wonder if there is a standard and better way to link data files to specific modules rather than packages. The dreadful "error: can't copy '': doesn't exist or not a regular file" ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This actually happens when I try to assemble the built distribution for debian (so it the problem might be with stdeb rather than with distutils, but I'm unsure). In my setup script I have: data_files=['', ['src/data.yml']], If I alter the destination directory with for example '.', the error message will be the same, just reporting the '.' instead of the '' (this is why I am sure it is related to this line)... Again, I am a bit confused... am I doing something wrong here? Thank you in advance for your help (and sorry if I am asking something silly. This is my very first experience with distutils and packaging! :) /mac